Even though no company has officially launched the self-driving car to the market, the race to create the driverless car still does not come to an end. After Google, Tesla, and few other automobile companies, now Honda enters the race. It seems that the large automaker companies do not want to be left behind in the race. Analysts and industry even question the automakers that do not want to participate in the race.
Instead of coming to the end, the competition for self-driving car is even more frantic from time to time. Lately, Honda Motor Company officially announced that it it would participate in the race. The announcement was made in a meeting with journalists in its Research and Development facility in Japan. Few details are available so far, but the automaker provided some clues about the partnership and the possibility of multiple rides in the car.
The Partnership for Self-Driving Car by Honda
During the meeting, Honda announced that it would build a partnership with the self-driving division owned by Alphabet, namely Waymo. As widely known, Alphabet is the parent company of Google. It is the leader in the autonomous car development. However, Waymo is not an automaker. Instead, the company itself helps automakers, which still depend upon human-controlled technology to computer-based system. Therefore, its partnership with Honda is an ideal choice.
As stated by Takahiro Hachigo – Honda’s President and CEO – in the meeting, the company would not do anything on its own. Instead, it would seek any potential for win-win relationship with other companies. HMC is open to partnership. Partnership with Waymo is a part of its participation on the race for self-driving car. The company itself has established some key technologies that open the road to the race.
Honda’s Key Technologies for Self-Driving Car
As mentioned above, Honda has owned several key technologies to open its way to self-driving car. For instance, it has Honda Sensing suite for driving assist, smart cruise control, automatic braking, and lane-keeping assists. They work seamlessly, thus providing the drivers with the ultimate driving experience. In the meeting, Honda’s President and CEO said that the company would integrate them into a new vehicle, which will be sold in Japan. It seems that the company will see how the integration works. It will be a strong foundation for driverless car development, of course.
The company has also taken several steps in its R&D facilities. For instance, it conducted highway ride test for a prototype sedan, which is featured with dual cameras, LIDAR, and wave radar units that work up to millimeter level. The technology integration allows the car to make necessary adjustment during the slower and congested traffic. It even allows the driver to make a video call.
Furthermore, the technology tracks how the driver moves to make sure that he/she is concentrating on the road. This of course aims at minimizing the accident risk. Besides the feature leeks, few details have been available on how the car will look like and what makes it able to compete with self-driving car developed by the other automakers.