Toyota Steps In With Self-driving Automobile

Industry Week | Technology

Without making much noise about it, Toyota, Japan's world supply of branded vehicles unveiled it's self-driving car. Though with limited features, the car can drive itself along a highway, Industry Week reports, Tuesday.

* Toyota

Toyota's new foray into driver-less vehicle was showcased as a modified Lexus GS which uses sensors to navigate roads, merge lanes and overtake other vehicles. But like most other researchers into driver-less vehicles, it is yet to be commercially available.

And it may be some five years before drivers get to have one, with Yoshida Moritaka, Toyota's chief safety technology officer telling the media that the target is 2020. "We aim to be operational by 2020, the year when Tokyo welcomes the Olympic Games," adding "The car we have here is able to drive independently from the highway entrance to the exit."

For now, the Toyota's driver-less car only switches to fully automated mode once it reaches the less frenetic confines of a highway and passes a sensor, say the Industry Week report.

Read full report at www.industryweek.com.