Honda’s Advance Future Safety Technologies
Honda’s Advance Future Safety Technologies
Posted on January 6, 2022
Car companies are approaching a perviable fork in the road with their driving technologies. It is a divide where some, like Tesla, are intent on making the driver secondary to the power of their self-driving technology and where others like Honda are loyal to the belief that vehicle mobility should be safe yet enjoyed by active participants in the experience. Until just recently Tesla’s self-driving technology offered drivers the choice to play Solitaire on the centre console while driving their vehicle instead of being connected to the act of driving. Being distracted in a semi-autonomous vehicle is not the best approach and Tesla engineers would probably agree, but this entertainment offering shows that in the long run Tesla is geared to move people away from the necessity of actively driving. Honda on the other hand has chosen to take a path that will allow for a continuation of driver inputs in conjunction with on board and external technology. Honda’s choice is good news for customers who enjoy driving and value the need to continually reduce driver error to prevent vehicle collisions.
Honda’s goal of “zero traffic collision fatalities by 2050” for customers using their mobility vehicles will unfold in stages. Presently a massive amount of research is being completed to identify human behavior and driving conditions. Honda has identified the components behind driver error through a ground breaking fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) study of the brain. What are the underlying causes of driving error and why do they make drivers feel anxious? This investigation of risk-taking behaviors will provide the clarity necessary to build out Honda’s Sensing 360 driver assistive technology by 2030. Beyond this date Honda will strive to achieve its 2050 goal of a collision free society by introducing new 5G telecommunication technologies at the earliest possible timing. Every step will affirm Honda’s dream of implementing technologies that will understand people.
Future Honda vehicle safety will rely on the following approach.
“Safe and Sound Network Technology. With the Safe and Sound Technology, information about potential risks in the traffic environment, which are detected based on information obtained from roadside cameras, on-board cameras and smartphones, will be aggregated in the server to reproduce that traffic environment in the virtual space.
In that virtual space, in consideration of the conditions and characteristics of each individual road user, the system predicts / simulates the behaviors of road users at high risk of a collision. Then, the system derives the most appropriate support information to help the road users avoid risks.
Such support information will be communicated intuitively to automobile drivers, motorcycle riders and pedestrians through “cooperative risk HMI (human-machine interface),” which will make it possible for the system to encourage road users to take action to avoid a collision before it happens.”
Please have a look at the following video showing safety technologies that are on the drawing board for Honda Vehicles.
Have a great New Year!
Until Next time
Macky