Message From Toyota Chief Safety Technology Officer Kiyotaka Ise

Since the 1990s, Toyota has engaged in automated driving technology research and development aimed at contributing to the complete elimination of traffic casualties.

Recently, with the creation of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and Toyota Connected (TC), our automated driving research work is progressing much faster than before.

We are releasing this white paper that summarizes our overall approach to automated driving, in the hope it will help explain our way of thinking.

Vehicles with automated driving technology will bring many benefits to society, but one of the top priorities at Toyota is to help make the traffic environment safer.

While it’s a given that one day, cars will be smart enough to drive you, we think building a partnership between you and the car will bring the greatest safety advantage.

We call this the “Mobility Teammate Concept.”

By having our vehicle technologies anticipate and interact with human beings and the traffic environment, we will get closer to realizing a future without traffic injuries or fatalities.

As early as 2020, some of our cars will be equipped with automated driving technology to enable driver-supervised automated driving on highways. The system will evaluate traffic conditions, make decisions and take action during highway driving, based on this concept.

We also care about bringing automated safety technologies to the greatest number of people as possible.

That’s why we will equip nearly all our new Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the United States, Europe and Japan with Toyota Safety Sense or Lexus Safety System+ by the end of this year.

As we endeavor to research and develop automated driving technology, we will continue to transfer some of what we’ve learned to future versions of these safety systems. We are dedicated to a future of ever better, and ever safer, cars, for the benefit of all.

 
Kiyotaka Ise

Chief Safety Technology Officer
Toyota Motor Corporation