Surprisingly enough, Toyota Motors, one of the world’s largest automakers, hasn’t been trying too hard to get at the forefront of the driverless car race, while almost all global car manufacturers, along with some of the world’s leading tech companies, have been putting a lot of effort into developing a vehicle that can drive itself. But, that’s about to change soon, with the Japanese automaker planning to spend a lot of money in the following years to boost its autonomous car research.
Major Step to Get Ahead of the Competition
Toyota has announced that it will invest $50 million in driverless car technology over the next five years, hoping to catch up with the competition in the race to launch the first fully-autonomous car. The automaker has announced that it has partnered up with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with plans to establish research centers that will focus on advancing autonomous vehicle technologies, aimed at improving traffic safety and curbing motor vehicle accidents.
Engineers at the joint research centers will work on artificial intelligence and driverless car technologies, with Dr. Gill Pratt, former Program Manager at DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), leading the projects.
Pratt said that researchers will try to improve the ability of self-driving cars to recognize various objects in their surroundings under different weather conditions, and “safely collaborate with vehicle occupants, other vehicles, and pedestrians”.
“We will initially focus on the acceleration of intelligent vehicle technology, with the immediate goal of helping eliminate traffic casualties and the ultimate goal of helping improve quality of life through enhanced mobility and robotics,” said Kiyotaka Ise, TMC Senior Managing Officer and Chief Officer, R&D Group.
Drivers Will Still Be Able to Have Control of Their Vehicles
Toyota says that the projects at the research facilities that it will establish at MIT and Stanford will not be aimed at taking the driver out of the equation, but developing an advanced autonomous system that will be able to take control of a vehicle in case it detects an imminent collision and perform a maneuver that will help protect the vehicle’s driver and passengers. According to the automaker, the systems will help prevent accidents in situations when the driver is unable to take the necessary action to avoid a collision due to a distraction of some sort, which would certainly help make roads safer, considering that distracted driving is among the leading causes of motor vehicle crashes.
“Our team will collaborate with Stanford and Toyota to develop advanced architectures that allow cars to better perceive and navigate their surroundings in order to make safe driving decisions,” said Professor Daniela Rus, one of the researchers who will lead the project at MIT. “These efforts will play a major role in helping reduce traffic casualties, and potentially even helping us develop a vehicle incapable of getting into a collision.”
Toyota already offers various advanced driver assist systems in most of its vehicles, but unlike other car makers, it hasn’t been working very hard on the development of a fully-autonomous vehicle, focusing on hydrogen fuel-cell technology instead, but with this collaboration with MIT and Stanford University, the Japanese company shows that it has decided to get much more serious about autonomous driving technology and catch up with the likes of Google and Tesla, which are currently at the forefront of driverless car development.