Toyota to Introduce Affordable Active Safety Technologies

Although Toyota has been saying that it's not looking to build a self-driving car in the near future, the company has been developing various technologies that make cars more independent, taking control over certain vehicle systems away from the driver and giving it over to the autonomous driving system. The latest safety systems developed by the Japanese car maker aim to make it easier for drivers to control their vehicles and avoid accidents, have to do with improved braking abilities, more sophisticated lighting technology, as well as communication with infrastructure and other vehicles.

Toyota announced last week that it will roll off a set of new active safety systems early next year, which will be implemented in numerous mass-market models, in line with the company's commitment to make driver assistance technologies more affordable. The new safety features will be divided into two packages: the Toyota Safety Sense C (TSS C), which will be offered on compact cars, and the Toyota Safety Sense P (TSS P), which will be available on mid-sized cars.

The TSS C includes three technologies: pre-collision system, lane-departure alert, and automatic high beam. The pre-collision system aims to prevent crashes, or at least reduce the impact and the consequences of a collision, employing a laser radar and a camera to detect moving objects in front of the vehicle. If it senses that a collision is imminent, it will stop the car traveling up to 19 mph. Also, if the driver starts braking before the impact, the system will apply additional braking force, thus reducing the impact forces during a collision.

In addition to the pre-crash system, the TSS C comes with a lane-departure alert, which can recognize yellow and white lane markings using a camera, so that it can warn the driver in case the car starts drifting away from its lane, by issuing video and audio alerts. Lastly, there is the automatic high beam feature, that automatically turns high beams off and turns low beams on when it detects that there is an oncoming vehicle approaching. This way, your car's lights won't blind oncoming drivers, which can help improve traffic safety significantly, given that failure to dim high-beam lights is a very common cause of accidents.

As far as the TSS P package is concerned, it offers radar cruise control on top of the three features that are included in the TSS C package, along with an upgrade to the existing pre-collision system. Radar cruise control is intended to help drivers maintain safe following distance at all times, by measuring the speed at which the vehicles ahead are traveling, using a radar and a camera to monitor other vehicles and adjust speed.

The pre-collision system offered in the TSS P package has an additional function, which can help detect pedestrians and alerting the driver if it senses that there is a possibility of hitting a pedestrian. In case the driver doesn't react after the video and audio alert is issued, the system activates the automated braking feature.

On top of these autonomous driving features, Toyota plans to equip its cars with vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication technology, which allow vehicles to send and receive information road conditions and potential road hazards, in order to improve traffic flow and prevent accidents.

Toyota said that their intention is to install these features in mass-market models, and make active vehicle safety technology more affordable, which is part of their efforts for repairing their reputation following numerous safety recalls over the past couple of years.