Tokyo - Toyota has unveiled a car that can drive itself on a freeway, the latest foray by a major manufacturer into the world of automated vehicles.
The car, a modified Lexus GS, uses sophisticated sensors to navigate roads, merge lanes and overtake other vehicles.
The company hopes to make other cars with similar features available within five years, in time for Tokyo's hosting of the Olympics.
Chief safety technology officer Yoshida Moritaka said at the car’s unveiling: “We aim to be operational by 2020, the year when Tokyo welcomes the Olympic Games.”
In its current incarnation, the car only switches to fully automated mode once it reaches the less frenetic confines of a freeway and passes a sensor.
“The car we have here is able to drive independently from the freeway entrance to the exit,” Moritaka said.
But Toyota hopes the technology will help it one day build a completely autonomous car as well as reduce accidents and congestion.
TEACHING CARS TO THINK
Toyota has been a relative latecomer to the rush to design automated cars, but in September announced plans to invest $50 million (R670 million) in building artificial intelligence into its vehicles, in a joint research project with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over the next five years.
Several major carmakers and technology giants have been pursuing autonomous vehicle technology. Google has been testing self-driving cars in Silicon Valley, while Nissan has vowed to put an automated car on Japan's highways as soon as 2016.
In 2018, Nissan models should have the ability to avoid hazards and to change lanes, and by 2020 vehicles should be able to autonomously manoeuvre through crowded city roads.