Toyota To Launch Automated Car Pilot For Tokyo's 2020 Olympics

While other automakers are quite vocal on their plans and progress of making self-driving cars, Toyota has been quiet. It did release some information on the types of sensors it uses and the test vehicles, but so far, none of us have seen one in real life.

However, it will no longer be the case in 2020. According to Toyota, it will conduct a ride-hailing pilot in Tokyo. The vehicles that will participate in this program is its “SAE Level-4” fleet. SAE is short for the Society of Automobile Engineers, while level 4 is a class of autonomous vehicles that are capable of doing all the tasks relating to driving under specific conditions like geography and weather.

Toyota classifies its vehicles as level-4, but it does not mean they will operate on their own and have no driver. According to Japanese laws, there has to be a safety driver behind the wheel all the time to take over the control when needed.

These cars will also have a technician on board to study its performance and system, as well as keep communication with the safety driver. This will be like tests on self-driving capability conducted in the U.S, where just a few operators have two employees onboard the vehicles.

Toyota will only conduct this test from July to September, and the vehicles will not be allowed to cover all of the city’s areas, but just one specific inside Tokyo’s Obaida district. According to the company, Obaida is a place with a complicated setting, creating a real challenge for its automated vehicles. There are vehicle traffic, pedestrians, high-rise buildings, and several road infrastructures, for the cars to demonstrate the company’s technology.

Those who are interested in participating in this program can sign themselves up on Toyota’s website. A group of participants will then be selected.

The automated cars will be powered by the “Chauffeur” software created by Toyota. The company said that it focuses on complete autonomy without any human participating in any situation or some driving domains only. The company also has another AV called “Guardian,” a high-tech system to assist drivers, similar to Autopilot of Tesla. Both of the systems have not made it to reality.

Before this plan to conduct a pilot program in Tokyo, Silicon-based Toyota Research Institute, the company’s U.S division, has done tests in Ottawa Lake, Michigan for a few years now. The facility replicates the hardest to navigate through scenarios of Obaida, preparing for the pilot in 2020 in Japan.

According to Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota Research Institute, by picking Obaida as the testing ground, the company has set a high bar that forces them to increase their capacities fast in a limited amount of time. To meet the target, the division is collaborating with Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development and the Advanced R&D Division of Toyota Motor Corporation in Tokyo.

The program is planned to happen at the same time as Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics. The company also said that it would take advantage of this same occasion to show the capacity of its batteries for electric vehicles. Toyota announced that it would provide the Olympics with 3,700 vehicles or mobility products, and 9 out of 10 of them will be powered by electricity, including gas-electric hybrids, battery-electric, and hydrogen-powered. Among these 3,700 vehicles, the battery-electric type will number 859, and that of fuel-cell electric will be 500.

In 2018, Toyota and Uber have agreed on a self-driving project with the Japanese automaker pleaded to pour in $500 million. The two companies will work on making self-driving cars together as part of this project.