Tokyo, Japan — Honda believes it has cracked the code to zero collision fatalities in their vehicles with the announcement of two new pieces of technology that the automaker promises will be a game-changer for road safety.
In the ongoing effort of reaching its goal of “zero traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles globally by 2050”, the Japanese automaker has announced what it claims is the world’s first AI-powered “Intelligent Driver-Assistive Technology”.
Honda says that this “intelligent” technology makes use of neurological data that tracks driver habits and human error, and in turn, is able to predict driver errors and avoid collisions. The company says it will “strive for the establishment of underlying technologies during the first half of the 2020s, with the practical application during the second half of the 2020s,” according to Honda’s press release.
The second prong of Honda’s attack on accidents is “Safe and Sound Network Technology.” This technology deals with how the driver’s vehicle interacts with other vehicles on the road and is apparently capable of accurately predicting traffic patterns and potential risks on the highway.
Honda says it will spend the second half of the 2020’s working to standardize this sort of technology across the industry.
“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 behaviours 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,” read part of Honda’s press release.
President of Honda’s R&D department, Keiji Ohtsu, said “Striving to completely eliminate mobility risks for everyone sharing the road, Honda will offer safety and peace of mind to each and every road user as a new value. Applying our future safety technologies which will embody such new value, Honda will work toward the realization of ‘zero traffic collision fatalities’ involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles globally by 2050. For the realization of a collision-free society where all road users care for each other and the freedom of mobility becomes possible, we will further accelerate our industry-wide and public-private initiatives.”
