After successfully
completing similar tests in the United States and Japan, Toyota has now taken
to Europe with an autonomous vehicle. This Lexus LS, fitted with all the
necessary gear to drive on its own, will be put to use in Brussels’ (Belgium)
city center.
Equipped with
LIDAR, radars, cameras and high-precision positioning system, the autonomous LS
will complete a fixed loop for the next 13 months. Human presence is a must
though, so a driver will sit behind the wheel, ready to take control at any
time. The driver will be accompanied by an operator, who will supervise the
system.
The self-driving LS
will be used by Toyota to collect data as part of the ‘L3Pilot project’, in
which the Japanese automaker has been involved, along with other partners such
as car manufacturers, automotive suppliers, research institutes and
authorities, since 2017. Partially funded by the European Commission, the
project is the precursor of large-scale autonomous driving tests, taking place
in 10 European countries, with 100 cars and 1,000 drivers.
Toyota sees the
driver and car as teammates, which is why the mobility approach has been named
‘Mobility Teammate Concept’. It will include two state-of-the-art technologies:
the Guardian and Chauffeur. The first one is monitoring what the driver is
doing at all times, being ready to intervene when necessary, whereas in the
latter, the technology allows the car to drive on its own.
