Toyota to install V2X systems in new models in Japan

Starting next year, some of Toyota Motor Corporation's new models will be compatible with advanced vehicle-infrastructure (V2X) cooperative systems that use a wireless frequency reserved for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). This compatibility will be offered as an option for the ‘Toyota Safety Sense P’ active safety package that will be made available in 2015 on select new models sold in Japan.

The systems will use the dedicated ITS frequency of 760 MHz for road-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication to gather information that cannot be obtained by onboard sensors. At intersections with poor visibility, information about oncoming vehicles and pedestrians detected by sensors above the road will be conveyed via road-to-vehicle communication, and information about approaching vehicles will be conveyed via vehicle-to-vehicle communication, with audio and visual alerts warning drivers when necessary.

In addition, Toyota's newly-developed Communicating Radar Cruise Control feature allows preceding and following vehicles to maintain safe distances between one another on highways.

Communicating Radar Cruise Control uses Toyota's existing forward-facing millimeter-wave radar to detect inter-vehicular distances and relative speeds. The addition of acceleration and deceleration information from preceding vehicles (obtained via vehicle-to-vehicle communication) significantly enhances tracking performance. In addition to making highway driving safer, this helps reduce traffic congestion and enables more fuel-efficient driving.

Toyota says it develops ITS-compatible interfaces in collaboration with government ministries and agencies and private companies, with the aim of launching them as soon as practically possible. In 2013, the carmaker participated in the ITS Green Safety public-private collaborative demonstration project to assess the social effects of such systems. Going forward, Toyota will participate in the ITS Connect Promotion Consortium^* to support the development of environments for the smooth introduction of such systems and their widespread adoption.