Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) seeks, as a mobility company, to enrich people’s lives through mobility. As a part of this effort, Toyota has positioned safety as a top-priority issue in accordance with its ultimate goal of reducing fatalities from traffic accidents to zero and is developing safety and automated driving technologies to offer unrestricted mobility to all. Toyota will review once again what true safety is for customers and what customers believe is true convenience and will link the results of its inquiries to people’s happiness.

The approach for achieving this is the Mobility Teammate Concept―an automated driving concept unique to Toyota that seeks to enhance communication between drivers and cars, enable them to reach out to each other for mutual assist, and enable coordinated driving similar to that by close friends. Rather than cars taking over driving from people and taking their place, drivers and cars act as partners to protect one another so that drivers can enjoy the experience of driving while deferring to automated driving at times, achieving truly safe, secure and unrestricted mobility.

(1) Features of Advanced Drive:

Advanced Drive has five technology characteristics: Intelligent, Reliable, Perceptive, Interactive, and Upgradeable.

The objective is to achieve automated driving that drivers can rely on through making decisions with the highest priority on safety at all times including consideration for the drivers of other vehicles while achieving natural and smooth driving equivalent to that of a person. AI technology centered on deep learning is incorporated to forecast various situations that may be encountered while driving and provide assist for driver responses. In cases where danger is forecasted, whether in the surrounding environment or the driver’s condition, the system provides a warning, and the driver can make a decision or specify operation of the system in accordance with a proposal from the system. The objective is driving assist that fosters trust between driver and car through this two-way communication.

(2) Advanced Drive Function:

Advanced Drive is the system that assists driving when driving on an expressway or other motor-vehicle-only roadway. By setting the destination in the navigation system, the on-board system will appropriately detect the situation, make decisions, and assist driving under the driver’s supervision according to actual traffic conditions. It can keep the vehicle in its lane, maintain the distance from other vehicles, navigate a lane split, change lanes, and overtake other vehicles until leaving the roadway for the destination.