Nissan, Toyota and Honda showcase autonomous driving tech prowess to world leaders at G7 Summit

Japanese carmakers Nissan, Toyota and Honda are each showcasing their latest advances in autonomous driving technology at the 42^nd G7 (Group of Seven) Summit which is being held on May 26-27.  

Nissan’s ProPilot tech

European Council president Donald Tusk got a front-seat view to autonomous drive technology on Thursday at the G7 summit in Ise-shima, Japan. The EC president’s car was among a cavalcade of Group of Seven next-generation vehicles.

The Nissan autonomous drive road session was one of a number of events planned during the Japan-hosted G7 Summit on May 26 and 27. The prototype vehicle, based on the Nissan Leaf, a 100% electric vehicle, was equipped with special features such as a millimeter  wave radar, laser scanners, cameras, and a specialised HMI (Human Machine Interface) to support autonomous driving.

The G7 Summit autonomous vehicle demonstration allowed president Tusk to experience how ProPilot technology could navigate roads, incorporating two innovative functionalities. The first, a miniature, high-spec laser scanner that determines the distance between the vehicle and its surroundings through precise three-dimensional measurements enabling navigation in tight spaces. The second is an eight-way, 360-degree view camera system for accurate routing decisions at intersections and on sharp curving roads. The technologies were tested on roads and highways in Japan and the United States earlier this year.

Nissan will introduce the ProPilot autonomous drive technology in a model in Japan later this year, and then expand availability to Europe, United States and China. ProPilot 1.0 can be used in congested highway traffic conditions.

By 2018, the company plans to implement a multiple-lane, ProPilot autonomous drive technology that allows highway lane change, while by 2020, the new technology will facilitate driving on urban roads, including intersections.

Toyota’s Urban Teammate

Toyota offered test drives of an experimental vehicle featuring a newly developed automated driving system, Urban Teammate. This, says Toyota, is a unique approach to automated driving that stresses the importance of a partner-like relationship between people and cars ― the Urban Teammate system was created to test the application of automated driving technologies on ordinary roads.

Urban Teammate is Toyota's successor to Highway Teammate, which was unveiled in October last year. Highway Teammate was developed exclusively to enable vehicles to handle every aspect of highway driving without assistance, including negotiating on-ramps and exit ramps.

Toyota developed Urban Teammate with the goal of enabling unassisted automated driving on ordinary roads. In addition to detecting passengers, bicycles and obstacles in and around the vehicle in which the system is installed, Urban Teammate is being developed to operate independently in accordance with local traffic regulations while making use of map data and visual data from intersections and traffic lights. The system features GPS and cameras, as well as a SPAD Lidar module, which uses high-resolution laser radar technology for environment mapping and recognition.

In order to allow for operation in more complex traffic environments, Toyota plans to improve Urban Teammate using AI technologies and an automated map generation system announced in December 2015. The map generation system utilises COSMIC, an automated spatial information generation technology to create the high-precision maps necessary for automated driving.

Based on the Mobility Teammate Concept, Toyota will enhance its development of these automated driving technologies with the aim of achieving a society where mobility means safety, efficiency and freedom.

Honda’s Automated Drive

Honda Motor Co is providing its fuel cell vehicle, the Clarity Fuel Cell and Automated Drive, an autonomous development vehicle, for G7 Summit 2016. The carmaker has also provided exhibits of its cutting-edge technologies and opportunities to test drive and experience advanced vehicles at the series of Ministers’ Meetings held prior to the G7 Ise-Shima Summit.