Honda to sharpen focus on R&D and innovation

Honda R&D Co, the research and development subsidiary of Honda, today announced plans to further strengthen its research and development of intelligent technologies.

Towards this objective, it plans to set up Honda R&D Innovation Lab Tokyo by September this year in Akasaka, Tokyo, a new operation which will serve as a venue for ‘co-creation’ where Honda will seek to collaborate with external experts and other research institutes.

By adding a new operation, Honda R&D Innovation Lab Tokyo, to the network of existing operations in Germany, the US and Japan, Honda will strive to attract and gather new talent from broad areas of expertise on a global basis. Honda will accelerate practical applications of such technologies in the future while seeking collaboration with external experts and other research institutions.

Honda R&D established Honda Research Institute (HRI) in 2003, to evolve its cutting-edge intelligent research which explores new fields beyond mechanical engineering, including the fields of brain research and visual/aural recognition. HRI has been working on various research projects while establishing a global network of researchers in the areas of advanced sciences through HRI operations in Frankfurt in Germany, Silicon Valley and Columbus in the US and Wako-City in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. In Silicon Valley, Honda R&D has also established its satellite operation, Honda Silicon Valley Lab (HSVL), which has been working in collaboration with the HRI operation in the US and making progress in some areas including the discovery of technologies among local start-up companies.  

Honda is planning to further strengthen and expand its research in the field of intelligent technologies, connectivity and robotics, of which it has been a pioneer. The company introduced the world’s first advanced humanoid robot called ASIMO in the year 2000 and has been constantly enhancing its capabilities with a goal to have the robot perform tasks that are considered too dangerous for human beings.