Honda’s strong desire to eliminate traffic collision fatalities led it to set the goal of realizing zero traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles globally by 2050. The keys to achieving this goal are Honda SENSING safety and driver-assistive systems equipped with a wide range of advanced functions and automated driving technologies. Yutaka Tamagawa, Head of the Software Defined Mobility Development Supervisory Unit, Business Development Operations, describes how Honda will advance these technologies toward the realization of society where people can enjoy mobility comfortably and with peace of mind.
Head, Software Defined Mobility Development Supervisory Unit
Business Development Operations
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Yutaka Tamagawa
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Revolutionary safety and driver assistance was made possible by the 360-degree field of view
Honda's desire is to offer the joy and freedom of mobility in a way that ensures safety and peace of mind of everyone sharing the road. To achieve this goal, realizing a society with zero traffic collision fatalities will be a critical factor. The first milestone we set in achieving this goal is to reduce by half the number of traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles by 2030.
“We are conducting a variety of research on a daily basis to realize this goal through continuous advancement of the Honda SENSING safety and driver-assistive system and automated driving technologies," said Yutaka Tamagawa, Head of the Software Defined Mobility Development Supervisory Unit, Business Development Operations.
What we strived to do with Honda SENSING was to install “human eyes” to our vehicles. Currently, the camera mounted on the front part of the vehicle has a viewing angle of 100 degrees. It used to be 50 degrees, but we have been advancing Honda SENSING by expanding the viewing angle and enabling the system to control the vehicle based on human-like spatial recognition.
“The average viewing angle of the human eyes is said to be about 100 degrees. On top of that, human eyes can sense the presence of objects through peripheral vision and measure distance to the object through their central vision. Human eyes are very high-performance sensors, and our focus had been on how close we can get to human eyes.”
Honda SENSING currently provides the driver with peace of mind by utilizing high-performance control chips and AI to identify people, bicycles, cars and motorcycles in front of the vehicle, quickly detecting potential dangers and applying the brakes.
A further advanced variation of Honda SENSING, Honda SENSING 360, introduced in 2022 (2023 in Japan), and its next-generation technologies (Next Concept) which will be applied starting in 2024, feature a field of vision (sensing) expanded to 360 degrees as its name suggests. In other words, it is close to the eyes of a plant-eating animal.
“Zebras, for example, can see 360 degrees with both eyes, enabling them to quickly notice approaching predators and take action. Similarly, Honda SENSING 360 will enable the driver to quickly see potential danger which is not visible with human vision. We plan to continue adding new driver assistive functions, such as automatic emergency steering for collision avoidance and enabling the occupants to get out of the vehicle safely by monitoring the rear of the vehicle.”
Featuring a camera with a viewing angle of 100 degrees and a total of five units of radar (one in front and one at each corner), Honda SENSING 360 and its next-generation technologies enable a variety of driver assistive functions.
“By combining radar at all four corners with the front camera/radar, the system becomes capable of sensing what is happening around the vehicle over quite a long distance, which contributes to collision prevention in situations that the conventional Honda SENSING front camera can not handle alone, such as collisions with another vehicle or pedestrian entering an intersection at the same time from different directions with poor visibility.”
So far, Honda SENSING-equipped vehicles have reduced the occurrence rate of rear-end collisions by about 80% and vehicle-pedestrian collisions by about 50%*. Expectations are high as to how much further the newly announced technological innovation for Honda SENSING will reduce collisions.
Source: Honda calculation based on data published by the Institute of Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA)
Calculated by the difference between survey results on the number of traffic collision fatalities and injuries per registered vehicle for the current N-BOX (September 2017 - December 2020) compared to the non-AEB equipped N-BOX (November 2011 - August 2017). Based on data published by ITARDA, the number of fatalities and injuries in collisions caused by N-BOX by the end of 2020 was surveyed.
“In terms of driver assistance, the driving comfort is also greatly enhanced. During a lane change, for example, some drivers have an experience of starting a lane change without realizing there was a car approaching from behind in the adjacent lane. Honda SENSING 360 and its next-generation technologies will make it possible in the future for the system to automatically make lane changes safely on behalf of the driver. This will enable people to enjoy a more relaxed ride over longer distances. We are pursuing the development of Honda SENSING technologies while focusing on both safety and occupant comfort.”
The Honda SENSING system uses sensing technologies to cover areas that are beyond human capabilities. The development team describes this as an “expansion of human capabilities.” Capabilities of individual drivers widely vary, but the driver-assistive functions of the vehicle will enable any driver to drive at a similar level and with peace of mind. That is what the development team envisions.
“The development team members share a common vision, which is the KITT from the American TV series Knight Rider. KITT uses AI to communicate with the driver, alerting and avoiding dangers that lie ahead. The driver can choose to let the vehicle drive automatically to the destination or to enjoy driving themselves. We have all the Knight Rider DVDs in our Honda library, and we sometimes watch them while talking about how great it would be to have a car like KITT.”
Safety and driver assistance that feels natural to the driver was realized through 1.3 million kilometers-worth of test driving
The Honda SENSING 360 safety and driver-assistive system and its next-generation technologies were made possible by the Legend model equipped with Honda SENSING Elite, which includes a function which qualified for Level 3 automated driving for the first time in the world.
“The realization of Level 3 automated driving, in which the system performs all driving operations under certain conditions instead of the driver, took a long time and was very challenging. We can say, however, that developing this Legend dramatically raised the level of our safety and driver assistance.”
A Level 3 automated driving car must never cause a collision while being driven by the system. In order to prove its safety, the system development employed simulations where a total of approximately 10 million pattens of possible real-world situations were simulated, and a number of demonstration tests were conducted while driving test vehicles on expressways in Japan for a total of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles).
“While developing the Legend, we focused on how to build trust between the driver and the vehicle, which is especially important for safety and driver assistance. This is about the driver’s confidence in the behavior of the vehicle. For example, when we are driving and trying to make a lane change, we have an image in our head about how we do it, then we operate the vehicle accordingly. With automated driving, if the vehicle makes movements which are different from what we expect, we feel very nervous. We refined things down to the smallest details so that various behaviors of the vehicle feel natural to the driver.”
Safety and driver assistance features that feels natural to the driver will be incorporated into the upcoming Honda SENSING 360 and its next-generation technologies. “I am confident that we will be able to provide a system that is so capable that it will surprise our customers," says Tamagawa.
Honda goes beyond its four-decade long dream of automated driving
Honda SENSING Elite has been the driving force behind the development of Honda’s safety and driver-assistive technologies, but now Honda is aiming to establish further advanced autonomous vehicle technologies in the second half of the 2020s. “There is one condition that must be met,” said Tamagawa.
“With a goal to create something that did not exist before, we developed the Honda SENSING Elite-equipped Legend, which featured a Honda and world's first Level 3 automated driving system. Our next achievement must also surprise the world; therefore, following the normal course of advancement will not be enough. It must be something that far exceeds people’s expectations. That is the prerequisite. At our workplace, a wide variety of ideas are being exchanged all the time. When completed, it will be a very unique car.”
The development team members are always highly motivated and continue to take on difficult challenges. How can they be so enthusiastic? The answer turned out to be simple.
“What we need is a dream. Our dream is to create something that does not yet exist in this world. Instead of waiting for someone to develop technologies which enable us to realize our dreams, we create such technologies ahead of the times. When Honda created the world's first car navigation system in 1981, Honda engineers involved in this development were already dreaming of automated driving. Now, as that future unfolds, we want to take it one step further and go beyond what they dreamed of. There are, however, still many unresolved issues lying ahead. My highest priority is to develop what our customers want the most, and offer it as soon as possible.”
Original article issued on December 1, 2022
“The average viewing angle of the human eyes is said to be about 100 degrees. On top of that, human eyes can sense the presence of objects through peripheral vision and measure distance to the object through their central vision. Human eyes are very high-performance sensors, and our focus had been on how close we can get to human eyes.”