Toyota is thinking of its drivers’ safety
Despite all of the economical problems that the carmaking industry is going through, research and development stands still for no one. As such, Toyota has recently detailed three new vehicle safety systems meant to avoid the instances of unintended acceleration and high-speed crashes.
Two of these new systems are meant to reduce the risk of a crash in case the driver pushes the wrong pedal or selects the wrong gear, especially when parking.
The Intelligent Clearance Sonar is designed to detect obstacles that are outside the driver’s line of sight and when detecting such an obstacle it will automatically apply the brakes if there is a risk of a crash. The system will work by first sounding an alarm, then reducing the engine power and only then applying the brakes if necessary.
This system will be further supported by the Drive-Start Control system, this one will recognize whether or not the wrong gear has been selected when the driver applies the throttle – this applies to whether the car is in Drive or Reverse; the first warming will be a appear on a screen and the engine output will be reduced in an attempt to avoid a collision.
The third system is called the Pre-Crash Safety system with Collision Avoidance Assist , designed to function at higher speeds in order to reduce the consequences of rear-end crashes. This latest system is actually already available in a few Toyota and Lexus vehicles and it uses radar to monitor the vehicle directly ahead. In the case it detects the risk of a collision, then an audio and visual warning will pop up alerting the driver to apply the brakes.
In case the brake pedal is pressed, then the system can increase the braking force by up to twice the average level achieved by drivers, so the system will slow the vehicle by up to 60km/h, or by 30km/h if the driver fails to hit the brake pedal at all.
Toyota says that all of these systems will be implemented in future vehicles.
