TOYOTA AUTOMATED DRIVING

TOYOTA

AUTOMATED

DRIVING

Whitepaper | August 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Message from Toyota Research Institute CEO Gill Pratt

Introduction

The Promise of Automated Driving Technology

Core Principles

The Future of the Driver - Vehicle Relationship

The Automated Driving Landscape

Toyota’s Approach to Vehicle Automation

Automated Driving Deployment: Personally-Owned Vehicles

Automated Driving Deployment: Mobility as a Service

Elements of Automated Driving

Challenges Facing Automated Driving Development

Toyota’s Automated Driving Programs, Partnerships, and Investments

Technology on Toyota Vehicles

MESSAGE FROM TOYOTA RESEARCH

INSTITUTE CEO GILL PRATT

As Toyota President Akio Toyoda has said, “the

automotive industry is facing sweeping, once-in-

a-century changes.” They are driven by innovations

in four technology categories – Connected,

Automated, Shared and Electried – each with its

own challenges and opportunities.

For automated driving, the challenges include

complex technical problems in perception,

prediction and planning, and a range of social,

ethical and policy issues for citizens, regulators

and lawmakers to consider.

While simpler to focus on technical issues, the

social, ethical, and policy challenges facing

automated driving are the most dicult. Since

no technology can perfectly predict human

behavior, some crashes will still occur wherever

vehicles with automated technology travel

the same roads with human-driven vehicles

and pedestrians. Even if automated driving

technology can be made, on average, much

safer than human driving, it may be dicult for

society to accept the remaining inevitable injuries

and fatalities when a vehicle with automated

technology is involved in a crash.

Of course, society has faced similar questions

before. In medicine, for example, patients

must sometimes risk adverse outcomes in

the hope of being cured. In general, we have

come to accept such risks, so there is reason to

hope a similar understanding could evolve for

vehicles with automated technology. But going

for a drive is not the same as ghting a life-

threatening illness. Trac crashes are suciently

rare to conceal the potential safety benets of

automated driving, and news of technology-

caused crashes tend to be greatly amplied in

human perception. Societal acceptance will likely

take time and will not be easy.

As a result, some may ask why any company

would take on the challenge of developing

a system for automated driving. For Toyota,

two of the most compelling reasons are: 1)

automated driving technology oers the

chance to dramatically reduce the more than a

million human-driven trac fatalities that occur

around the world every year, and: 2) automated

driving technology could provide mobility for

a rapidly growing segment of society – the

elderly – for whom loss of mobility leads to loss

of independence and lower quality of life. As we

have seen since Toyota rst began researching

automated driving in the 1990s, we continue to

see the technology’s potential to help everyone

get where they want and need to be... safely.

We hope the public shares our belief mobility can

be a source of inspiration, and automated driving

oers the chance to share joy in the experience

of driving and a way to improve quality of life

for everyone. Most importantly, because risk

can never be completely eliminated, we hope

the public will work with us as partners in the

development of automated driving technology to

improve the safety, availability of mobility and, in

turn, quality of life for as many people as possible.

Dr. Gill Pratt

Chief Scientist and Executive Fellow for Research, Toyota Motor Corporation

Chief Executive Ocer, Toyota Research Institute

More than 80 years ago, Kiichiro Toyoda

launched a department inside Toyoda Automatic

Loom Works to investigate what was then a

relatively new technology: automobile engines.

This move, which laid the foundation for the

Toyota Motor Corporation, reected a critical

insight: Automobiles would revolutionize society

– not because the automobile was a machine

that could move, but because it was a machine

that could dramatically amplify human mobility.

Today, technology is once again poised to

expand what is possible for mobility. Connected

vehicles – the power of big data – sharing,

and vehicle electrication change the concept

of the car. At the same time, steep declines

in the cost of sensors, exponential growth in

computing power and the rapid improvement of

Articial Intelligence (AI) systems have opened

the door to advanced systems for automated

driving. At Toyota, we see the extraordinary

potential for this technology. Just as we did

so many decades ago, we are remaking our

company to meet this new challenge.

Importantly, Kiichiro Toyoda’s insight in the

1930s remains true today. The value oered

by today’s groundbreaking technology is not

in the machines themselves, but in what they

oer to society. As a result, our ultimate goal is

not to create automation for cars, but rather to

expand autonomy for people. We are working

to create the tools that will help people get

where they want and need to be, and to create

a society where mobility is safe, convenient,

enjoyable, aordable and available to everyone.

As we pursue this vision, we are guided by a

commitment to safety – both in how we research,

develop, and validate the performance of vehicle

technology and in how we aim to benet society.

Despite their tremendous positive benets,

cars and trucks are involved in crashes that

annually result in more than a million fatalities

worldwide. Our research into automated driving

is an extension of Toyota’s long-standing

focus on improving automobile safety, and it

advances our ultimate goal of helping realize

a future without trac injuries or fatalities.

That is why we are working to help consumers

both enjoy the benets of this research in the

near term, while we continue to work on the

most advanced technologies for the future. We

have made advanced driver assistance systems

(ADAS) available across nearly all new Toyota

and Lexus vehicles through Toyota Safety Sense

and Lexus Safety System+. These packages,

which include underlying automated driving

components like Automatic Emergency Braking

and Lane Keep Assist, are available as standard

or optional equipment on new Toyota and Lexus

vehicles in Japan and Europe, while nearly

every model and trim level sold in the United

States provides it as standard equipment.

Looking ahead, we follow those same priorities

in our research. We are working aggressively

to develop vehicles that will use the “Toyota

Chaueur” automated driving approach but

have also prioritized research and development

of nearer term “Toyota Guardian™” active

safety technology. We believe Toyota Guardian

– which uses Toyota’s underlying automated

driving technology to support and protect a

driver by amplifying the driver’s capabilities – is

an approach that can save more lives sooner,

prior to bringing Chaueur to market.

As with any technology revolution, the impact

of automated driving will go well beyond

cars and trucks to include new business

models and product categories, ranging from

mobility service platforms to personal robotics

solutions. Major challenges remain, but we

are inspired to help lead the way toward the

future of mobility as we continue to focus on

enriching lives around the world with safe

and responsible ways of moving people.

INTRODUCTION

The value oered by today’s

groundbreaking technology is not

in the machines themselves, but in

what they oer to society.

Toyota is guided by its Global vision,

which calls on the company to “lead the

way to the future of mobility, enriching

lives around the world with the safest and

most responsible ways of moving people.”

This mission inuences everything we

do, including making high-quality cars

and trucks, constantly innovating and

working to safeguard the environment.

Automated driving is a natural next

step in Toyota’s growth as a mobility

company. It expands upon traditional

automotive capabilities to help people

get to where they want and need to be,

while oering the potential to benet

all of society by helping to eliminate

trac fatalities and injuries, reshape

cities, reduce emissions, and achieve

our ultimate goal: mobility for all.

IMPROVING SAFETY

First and foremost, Toyota is committed to

automated driving because the technology

oers the promise of a world with far fewer

casualties from crashes. According to the

World Bank, there are about 1.25 million

worldwide trac fatalities annually and

far more trac injuries. Automated driving

technology could drastically reduce this

number by helping to prevent crashes

caused by human error. Our work on this

technology follows from our commitment

to safe driving with a goal of developing

a car that would never be responsible

for causing a crash and that can avoid or

mitigate many crashes caused by other

vehicles or external factors on the road.

This focus on safety carries through to

all of Toyota’s research and development

of systems for automated driving. This

means testing and validation to help

ensure the proper performance of

new technologies before their market

introduction and a focus on expanding

the adoption of potentially life-saving

features to non-self-driving vehicles.

THE PROMISE OF AUTOMATED

DRIVING TECHNOLOGY

MORE EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION

Beyond their core safety benets, systems

for automated driving may help make trac

smoother and more ecient. This could provide

meaningful improvements to air quality through

reduced emissions and to the quality of life of

drivers through shortened and more predictable

travel times. The technology would also expand

the number of people able to experience

the joy of driving, while also signicantly

improving the quality of time spent in a vehicle

during routine commuting or long drives.

Vehicle automation also holds the promise of

increasing access to vehicle travel to a larger

portion of the world’s population through

aordable, on-demand mobility models.

Combining automated technology with

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) will help increase

personal mobility, especially for people with

physical limitations. This type of on-demand

transportation could potentially transform cities

and support more economically vibrant and

ecient communities. For example, parking

areas in urban centers could be repurposed

for people rather than vehicles, with MaaS

vehicles using automation helping cities evolve

into more environmentally-friendly spaces with

greatly reduced emissions, trac and noise.

A REVOLUTION BEYOND CARS

Toyota believes the technology behind

automation will bring sweeping benets and

mobility solutions that extend far beyond cars

and trucks. AI oers the potential to revolutionize

and improve the daily lives of millions by creating

new categories of technologies and services.

Toyota is leveraging its research in automated

driving to create new mobility solutions, such as

robots with enhanced perception, reasoning and

manipulation that can oer expanded freedom of

movement for all, including people with limited

mobility associated with age, illness or disability.

For example, assistive robots could someday

empower and enable people who might

otherwise be restricted in their ability to move

around their homes or in their communities.

These systems show promise in helping

seniors “age in place” with dignity rather

than moving into assisted living facilities –

an important potential benet given current

demographic trends in many countries.

SAFETY APPROACH

Since the 1990s, Toyota has worked to

develop automated driving technologies

through the framework of our Integrated

Safety Management Concept. This

approach focuses on technologies

that could mitigate the risk of collision

at each stage of driving, including

Parking, Active Safety, Pre-Collision

Safety, Passive Safety and Rescue.

We accomplish this by working in each

category to improve safety along three

distinct pillars: people, vehicles and

the trac environment. This approach

allows us to expand our focus, looking

beyond the potential of new vehicle safety

technologies to include expanded safety

education programs and new partnerships

with governments and other stakeholders

that can improve the construction of

roads and other trac infrastructure.

CORE PRINCIPLES

Parking

Dynamic Radar Cruise

Control (DRCC)

Lane Keeping Assist

(LKA)

Adaptive High-Beam

System (AHS)

Automatic High

Beam (ABS)

Lane Departure Alert

(LDA)

Blind Spot Monitor

(BSM)

Vehicle Dynamic

Control

VDIM

VSC

Traction Control

(TRC)

Brake Assist (BA)

Navigation

Coordination System

Cooperative ITS

Night View

PCS: Pre-Collision SystemVDIM: Vehicle Dynamic Integrated ManagementITS: Intelligent Transport Systems

VSC: Vehicle Stability Control

BA: Break Assist

ABS: Antilock Braking System

Antilock Braking

System (ABS)

GOA: Global Outstanding Assessment

Active Safety Passive Safety

Pre-Collision

Emergency

Response

Intelligent Parking

Assist (IPA)

Intelligent Clearance

Sonar (ICS)

Drive-Start Control

Back Guide

Monitor

VDIM

VSC

BA ABS

TRC

Pre-Collision

System (PCS)

Pre-Collision

Brake Assist

Pre-Collision Braking

Type

Regular Type:

PCS to help prevent

rear-end collisions

Advanced Type:

PCS to help prevent

collisions with

pedestrians

Basic Function

Alert

GOA

Pedestrain

Injury-reducing Body

Seatbelts

Airbag

Pop-up Hood

Automatic Collision

Notiﬁcation (ACN)

Collision

Panoramic View

Monitor

Intelligent Adaptive

Front-lighting System

(AFS)

In addition to looking forward, we also

strive to learn from the past. This includes

studying actual collisions in order to meet

and push beyond the industry’s ever-higher

safety standards. Toyota analyzes the causes

of vehicle-related collisions and occupant

injuries by using a range of investigation

data. Using technologies like Toyota’s

Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS),

we simulate crashes to help develop safety

technologies. In addition, we conduct

experiments on actual vehicles before we

launch new technologies. Post-launch, we

evaluate the eectiveness of the technologies

by assessing any crashes that might occur.

Collectively, this strategy has resulted in

meaningful safety improvements, as each

new advancement in technology or design

expands the range of potential collisions

the vehicle can prevent or mitigate.

THE MOBILITY TEAMMATE CONCEPT

Toyota’s development philosophy for automated

driving is the Mobility Teammate Concept

(MTC), an approach built on the belief people

and vehicles can work together in the service

of safe, convenient and ecient mobility.

The MTC combines all of Toyota’s research into

automated driving and merges it into a vision in

which people and vehicle “team up” to monitor

and assist each other whenever necessary. In

the near term, this approach capitalizes on the

dierent skills humans and machines bring to

the challenge of safe driving. Indeed, thanks

to the power of connected systems and cloud-

based technology, this sharing of responsibilities

means intelligent vehicles might one day improve

continually, with every car and truck potentially

beneting from the experience of many drivers.

Importantly, MTC is a philosophy built on

the belief people should have choices,

and technology should amplify rather than

replace human capability. Instead of removing

humans from any engagement with their

own mobility, it allows people to enjoy the

freedom and joy of driving if they choose,

while also beneting from the capabilities of

automated driving when they need or wish.

The emergence of automated driving

has raised new questions about

the future of the personally-owned

vehicle and about the long-term

relationship between car and driver.

For some, this is an easy question with little

signicance. To them, a car is just a means

of transportation used to move from one

place to another, not much dierent than

a train or a plane. At Toyota, we see a car

as something more – a feeling we know

many people share around the world that

is captured by the Japanese word “Aisha,”

or “My car, I love it.” And we do not think

this relationship will cease any time soon.

What is it about the connection

between people and cars that

generates so much love?

We believe it’s a relationship that is

fundamentally dierent from those

we have with many other machines.

A car is a safe, personal space with a

comfortable and relaxing environment.

Almost everything about it, inside and

out, can be customized to express our

unique identity. Over time, the car itself

changes to reect who we are and the

lives we lead. Most importantly, the

car amplies us – allowing us to travel

further, faster and with less eort in the

company of and with the goal of joining

loved ones. What’s more, we control the

car. We press the accelerator, and the car

moves us the way our legs do, but with

more power. We turn the steering wheel,

and it is as if we ourselves are changing

our body’s direction of exploration.

Each customization we make to our car

also helps to build a deep and meaningful

relationship between it and us. Our

car becomes the only one like it in the

world: a unique reection of our own

life. We pamper, abuse and use our cars

extensively, and they carry the marks of

this relationship: a sticker here, a coee

stain there, and that time where we made

a tear in the back seat and never bothered

to get it xed. At a more social level, cars

belong to families and are sometimes

passed on to the next generation, carrying

with them the histories of our lives and

relationships. Over time, a car stops

being just a mode of transportation

and becomes something we love.

THE FUTURE OF THE DRIVER -

VEHICLE RELATIONSHIP

For Toyota, the relationship between cars

and people is fundamental to everything

we do, including our research into

automated technology. We use the word

“teammate” to describe our concept for

automated driving because of our belief

car and driver can help each other to make

driving safe, comfortable and fun.

What does this relationship mean in practice?

When it comes to safety, driving skills don’t just

dier between people. Experience, age, medical

conditions or simple fatigue mean individual

driving ability can change from moment to

moment. That’s why Toyota designs automated

driving technologies with the aim of meeting

these shifting needs, helping to support safe

driving regardless of the driver’s condition.

Of course, there are also people who want

a specic driving experience and expect the

vehicle to perform the way they want, when

they want. That may mean a sporty driving

mode in some situations and a smooth

ride in others. We believe advanced vehicle

technologies should respect these unique

and changing needs and respond with the

capability a driver desires while maintaining

the appropriate level of safety support.

In short, Toyota believes cars should learn from

and be responsive to their owners. Even in a

future where driving is automated, we believe

this connection means cars will continue to be

loved, with the relationship deepening as they

meet our needs and grow to reect our unique

tastes over the course of our lives together.

AUTOMATED OR AUTONOMOUS?

Over decades, vehicles have become more

sophisticated. Computers can increasingly

handle direct involvement with key

functions, such as acceleration and

braking. More recently, new technologies

have emerged to perform additional tasks,

such as helping to keep a vehicle in its lane

or intervening if a collision is imminent.

With the rise of systems that can perform

some or all driving tasks, a host of terms

have entered the market to describe

them. These include “automated,”

“highly automated,” “semi-” and

“partially autonomous,” “self-driving,”

and “driverless,” to name a few.

For general descriptive purposes, Toyota

uses the word “automated” to describe a

wide range of technology that augments

or replaces direct human control during

some period of time. We use the term

“autonomous” to describe only those

vehicles where an automated system

can perform the complete dynamic

driving task, essentially replacing the

job of the driver, during some period

of time (not necessarily indenitely).

By contrast, much of what is currently

described in public discourse as an

“autonomous vehicle” is often not truly

“autonomous” from human oversight

or driving responsibility. Care in using

these terms is important, as their

application to vehicles in the market

may impact consumers’ expectations

and understanding about how those

vehicles perform. As we implement

these technologies in passenger

vehicles, we believe it is important

to describe accurately, or to use

terminology that suggests, the actual

function the vehicle can perform. We

believe helping consumers understand

automated driving technology is another

way of promoting safety in its use.

Regardless of whether one prefers

“automated” or “autonomous,” the

range of capabilities of these emerging

technologies cannot be described in

just one word. For that, international

standards organizations have developed

documents to address technical

aspects of automation for vehicles.

THE AUTOMATED

DRIVING LANDSCAPE

STANDARDS ORGANIZATION ACTIVITIES FOR DRIVING AUTOMATION

One example of activity is SAE International’s issuance of

recommended practice J3016. That document categorizes

automation based on whether an automation system:

• performs acceleration/deceleration or steering,

• performs acceleration/deceleration and steering,

• monitors and responds to the driving environment,

• performs fallback of the dynamic driving task

(functions required to operate a vehicle),

• is limited by an operational design domain

(conditions under which a vehicle can operate).

SAE has dened levels of automation that range from no automation (labeled as “Level 0”)

to full automation (labeled as “Level 5”) as displayed in the following chart.

These levels provide valuable and useful guidance, and they serve an important role in

facilitating clarity in global discussions and potential regulations around automation

These are driver support features These are automated driving features

What does the

human in the

driver’s seat

have to do?

You are driving whenever these driver support features

are engaged — even if your feet are oﬀ the pedals and

you are not steering

You must constantly supervise these support features,

you must steer, brake or accelerate as needed to

maintain safety

These automated driving features

will not require you to take

over driving

When the feature

requests,

These features

are limited to

providing

warnings and

momentary

assistance

automatic

emergency

braking

blind spot

warning

lane departure

warning

lane centering

adaptive cruise

control

lane centering

AND

adaptive cruise

control at the

same time

traﬃc jam

chauﬀeur

local driverless

taxi

pedals/

steering wheel

may or may not

be installed

same as

level 4, but

feature

can drive

everywhere

in all

conditions

These features

provide

steering OR

brake/

acceleration

support to

the driver

These features

provide

steering

AND brake/

acceleration

support to

the driver

These features can drive the vehicle

under limited conditions and will

not operated unless all required

conditions are met

This feature

can drive the

vehicle under

all conditions

you must drive

You are not driving whenever these driver support

features are engaged — even if your feet are oﬀ the

pedals and you are not steering

What do these

features do?

Example

Features

SAE J3016

LEVELS OF DRIVING AUTOMATION

LEVEL 0 LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5

SAE International and J3016 are acknowledged as the source and must be reproduced AS-IS.

Toyota’s research into automation is driven

by two related but distinct objectives:

1) improving driving safety and

2) improving access to and the

convenience of mobility.

We are pursuing two distinct concepts to

achieve those goals with the development

of each built on similar perception,

prediction and planning technology.

CHAUFFEUR

For those who cannot or choose not

to drive because of age, inrmity or

any other reason, we are working to

develop automated driving technology

that will allow a vehicle to drive on

its own without human oversight or

fallback responsibility. We call this

eventual capability Toyota Chaueur.

We are designing Chaueur to use an

AI system to completely perform the

driving function. With Chaueur, the

human will not have a role for the task

of driving while the system operates

(similar to SAE Levels 4 and 5).

TOYOTA GUARDIAN™

To more quickly realize the safety benets

of automated driving technology and to

expand the ability of current drivers to

experience the joy of driving, Toyota is

developing an approach to active safety

called Guardian. Guardian aims to safely

blend vehicle control between the driver

and an AI system, sharing roles to take

best advantage of their individual skills.

We call this blended envelope control.

As in the ight control systems modern

ghter airplanes use, the human driver

retains control, but the AI translates his or

her commands to keep the vehicle within

a dened safety envelope. Guardian will

constantly monitor the environment and

step in to amplify the driver’s capabilities

and may intervene when a collision or

other safety-critical incident is imminent.

This is not done by braking alone, as

in current pre-collision systems, but by

employing the full range of driving actions,

including accelerating, changing lanes and

preventing the driver from over-reacting to

a situation. Fundamentally, the system is

being designed to help prevent the vehicle

from being hit, to avoid hitting anything

else and to stop it from going o the road.

TOYOTA’S APPROACH TO

VEHICLE AUTOMATION

Toyota has made signicant progress applying

blended envelope control between the driver

and the system to automobiles. Rather than

switching between the driver and the system

in the event of a safety issue, there is a near-

seamless blend of both working as teammates

to extract the best input from each.

Guardian exists on a spectrum of capability

that denes how much it can assist to protect

vehicle occupants. This includes mistakes or

other errors made by the driver and from external

factors on the road, such as other vehicles,

obstructions or trac conicts. The higher the

Guardian capability, the greater the number and

types of crashes it can help protect against.

For example, at a modest level of Guardian

capability, systems like Lane Departure Alert

(LDA) and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB)

can help prevent some crashes. At the highest

level, Guardian capability is being developed

with the goal to ensure a human-driven vehicle

would never be responsible for causing a

crash and also avoid many crashes that other

vehicles or external factors would cause.

BENEFITS OF THE GUARDIAN MODEL

Guardian oers an important path to vehicle

automation because it avoids several challenges

Chaueur faces. Chaueur is an important

technology that will make a meaningful impact

on the lives of people who cannot or do

not wish to drive. But its development faces

signicant technical and social challenges

that will take time to address. In particular, the

Chaueur automation model faces several key

challenges when applied to automated driving:

• Humans suer from a basic psychological

challenge known as “vigilance decrement,”

which makes it hard to keep one’s attention

and awareness engaged when monitoring

for rare events over long time periods.

• Navigating the trac environment can at

times be exceptionally complicated in ways

that go beyond developing technology that

can handle varied environmental conditions

and obey the rules law denes. A system fully

capable of staying within appropriate lanes,

stopping and starting at trac lights, and

navigating a route from one point or another

would also encounter a trac context dened

by people and can change at any time.

At present, many deployments of Level

4-equivalent systems address these issues

by operating in highly restricted Operational

Design Domains, which limit the vehicles to

operate in conditions, such as low speeds, fair

weather, simple geography, light trac and few

other variables on the road, like pedestrians

or cyclists. Wider deployment will require a

signicant technical and sociological leap so

vehicles can recognize the road environment’s

physical elements and the social context and

interactions between the people who use it.

We are designing Guardian to avoid many of

these constraints. The underlying automated

technology only intervenes when necessary. This

allows human drivers to leverage their social

awareness to navigate through the complicated

and rapidly shifting trac environment. In so

doing, Toyota believes the Guardian approach

may help us realize the safety benets of

automated technology sooner by enabling us

to introduce higher levels of driver assistance

into production vehicles in the near term as

we continue our progress toward Chaueur.

To ensure these benets are available to as

many drivers as possible, Toyota plans to

oer Guardian to others in the industry.

In addition, just as Guardian is designed

to amplify the human driver’s ability rather

than replacing it, it might also add an extra

measure of support to another automated

driving system, whether provided by Toyota or

any other company. For example, Toyota has

announced its intention to include Guardian

as standard equipment on all Toyota e-Palette

platforms we build for the MaaS market,

oering intervening support regardless of which

automated system a eet buyer chooses to use.

What’s more, Toyota also believes Guardian

will, over time, build much-needed trust and

acceptance for highly automated driving

technology. Automated systems are often

viewed with suspicion or fear because they

remove the human from vehicle control.

Guardian may foster a dierent reaction

because it is designed to amplify human

performance rather than replace it and

because it may highlight those situations

where the automated technology

provided a safety benet.

HUMAN DRIVER CAPABILITY AND

ENVIRONMENTAL DIFFICULTY

Toyota’s research on automated driving

technology goes beyond seeking to expand

vehicle capabilities. It also considers

the capability of human drivers and the

diculty of the driving environment.

Importantly, driver capability and driving

diculty are not static. They rise and fall over

time. Driver capability depends on factors, such

as skill, fatigue and distraction level. Driving

diculty shifts based on issues ranging from

weather to trac or construction. Most of the

time, driver capability is sucient to prevent a

crash. It is the times when driving diculty rises

above the driver’s skill that a crash is likely.

Automated technology oers the potential

to contribute at periods of both high and low

driving diculty. With the power of blended

envelope control, the vehicle might one day

leverage Guardian to help prevent a crash

when driving diculty is higher than the

driver’s capability to navigate safely. At times

of low driving diculty, Guardian technology

will maintain vigilance to help make minor

corrections (i.e., lane keep assist) to help

keep a vehicle in its lane, for example.

At present, Guardian’s technical abilities

might be higher than the driver’s skill only in

some limited circumstances. Over time, as

technology improves and the system learns,

Guardian capability will grow steadily toward

an ideal goal of creating a vehicle that would

never be responsible for a crash, regardless

of human driver errors. At the same time,

Chaueur capability will advance toward a goal

of being able to drive safely in all conditions.

Importantly, driving environments can be

extremely complex and dicult, and no

automated system – regardless of how

capable it may be – is likely to prevent crashes

entirely. A fundamental question yet to be

addressed is “how safe is safe enough?” The

answer will depend on government regulation,

liability risks, societal acceptance and what

is technically possible. In general, we believe

systems providing Chaueur capability might

need to be signicantly safer than average

human drivers to be accepted by society.

By contrast, Guardian capability might be

judged against the standard of, on average

and as often as possible, “do no harm.”

Autonomy

Capability

Far Future

Possbile Crash #2

Possbile Crash #1

Time

Near

Future

Present

Driver

Capability

In 2003, Toyota introduced its rst millimeter

wave radar-based Pre-Collision System

(PCS). Soon after, Toyota rolled out the

system to more-aordable vehicles,

such as Prius. Developing advanced

technologies rst, then nding reasonable

ways to bring them to a more popular and

aordable range of vehicles, continues

to be Toyota’s strategy. This two-axis

approach allows us to rapidly spread the

availability of safety technology, and it also

applies to automated driving technologies.

The results can be seen most clearly in

Toyota Safety Sense and Lexus Safety

System+. As research and development

progresses, future generations of both

systems will continue to expand to widen

the range of safety systems and automated

technologies available to the general

public. For example, in 2018, Toyota began

to roll out the second generation of Toyota

Safety Sense and Lexus Safety System+ on

vehicles beneting from a major model

change. In this second generation, we

added new capabilities to enhance safety,

including the ability to detect pedestrians

in low-light conditions, the ability to

detect bicycles, and an expanded road

sign recognition system covering more

regions and countries than before.

This approach of beginning with

personally-owned vehicles is a proven

and valuable method for technology

development, as it speeds the introduction

of advanced systems that can help

improve safety, reduce accidents and

ease trac. Today, thanks to rapid

component and information technology

developments, we can often reach

mass-vehicle deployment of new safety

systems much faster than before.

Toyota is committed in the near term

to bringing vehicles with automated

driving capabilities to market. Teammate,

targeted for commercial availability

in 2021, is expected to initially enable

driver-supervised automated driving

(SAE Level 2) on highways. The system

will evaluate trac conditions, make

decisions and take action during highway

driving. Potential capabilities include

changing lanes (with driver approval),

maintaining a safe distance from

preceding vehicles and exiting highways.

AUTOMATED DRIVING DEPLOYMENT:

PERSONALLY-OWNED VEHICLES

USING MAAS TO ACCELERATE

AUTOMATED DRIVING DEVELOPMENT

Through its own programs and in

partnership with various companies

in the mobility services space, Toyota

plans to leverage a range of MaaS

platforms to support and accelerate

the development and deployment

of automated driving technology.

MaaS addresses one of the key

challenges in developing automated

driving systems – the need for signicant

driving data to improve core technologies.

Initial component costs mean personally-

owned vehicles with systems for automated

driving are likely to be expensive and

sell in small numbers. This, combined

with the low usage rates of private

vehicles, limits how much data they

will collectively generate in order to

help improve the system. In a MaaS

application, costs can be amortized

across a eet and higher utilization

rates will increase data gathered. As a

result, the system’s capabilities can be

extended more quickly, beneting both

MaaS and personal vehicle applications.

In addition, MaaS provides a unique

opportunity to deploy vehicles equipped

with SAE Level 4 automated systems

sooner. Fleets do not need the same

exibility as personally-owned vehicles

and can be limited to simplied operating

domains, such daylight hours, good

weather and/or known xed routes.

Toyota believes the deployment of a high

level of automation to support MaaS can

help lower costs per passenger mile to

create new waves of consumer demand

and a virtuous cycle of aordable mobility,

safety and convenience. It can also help

improve automated driving technology

and support greater societal acceptance

and consumer adoption. Taken together,

the system will bring forward key benets

of automated driving much faster than

through private ownership alone.

AUTOMATED DRIVING DEPLOYMENT:

MOBILITY AS A SERVICE

AUTONOMOUS MOBILITY AS A

SERVICE (“AUTONO-MAAS”)

To fully realize the potential synergies

of automated technology and MaaS

networks, Toyota is pursuing a range of

technology and vehicle platforms.

• e-Palette, rst announced at the 2018

Consumer Electronics Show, is a purpose-

built mobility commerce platform designed to

support Autono-MaaS business applications.

The open, exible platform will be easily

adapted to support a range of uses, including

ride-sharing, delivery and retail. Currently

under development in coordination with

partners, including Amazon, DiDi, Mazda,

Pizza Hut and Uber, e-Palette will be controlled

by SAE Level 4 Automated technology or, if

desired, by a user’s proprietary system for

automated driving. In either case, e-Palette

will include Toyota’s Guardian technology,

which will act as a safety net. Toyota plans to

deploy mobility solutions like the e-Palette

at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic

Games, which now take place in 2021.

• Toyota also plans to deploy automated

driving technology on the mobility networks

operated by third parties. In August 2018,

we announced a new collaboration with

Uber Technologies designed to advance and

bring to market autonomous ride-sharing

as a mobility service at scale. As part of the

agreement, Toyota is developing an Autono-

MaaS eet based on the Sienna Minivan

platform, which will be equipped with Uber’s

Autonomous Driving System and use Toyota’s

Guardian as a safety support system. Pilot-

scale deployments are intended to begin

on the Uber ride-sharing network in 2021.

FUNDAMENTALS OF AUTOMATED

TECHNOLOGY

In general, driving automation operates

via interactions between fundamental

systems. Various combinations of these

systems enable vehicles to understand

the driving environment, make intelligent

decisions and, in the case of higher

automation levels, navigate safely

to a destination. These fundamental

systems are described as follows:

• Localization and Mapping determines

where the vehicle is within its

environment. This requires building

a specialized map of the surrounding

environment, either from scratch or

by drawing from a baseline of prior

knowledge that is well-understood and

trusted to be mostly correct, and then

localizing the vehicle within that map.

This system helps a vehicle correctly

interpret the data its sensors gather.

• Perception combines information

from the Localization and Mapping

system with data from vehicle sensors

– including cameras, LiDAR, RADAR,

Global Navigation Satellite Systems

(GNSS) and inertial navigation units

(INU), among other inputs – to collect

and interpret information about the

vehicle’s current situation and its

relationship to its environment. This

includes the location and movement of

the full range of obstacles, both static

and dynamic, including infrastructure,

vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and more.

The amount and complexity of data

for analysis makes this one of the most

challenging steps in automated driving.

• Prediction helps the vehicle estimate

where other vehicles, pedestrians,

bicycles, etc. are likely to be in the

future. Often there are multiple possible

predictions (known as hypotheses).

Currently, humans do a much better

job of prediction than any machine.

This area will continue to challenge the

development of automated driving.

• Planning determines one or more

safe courses of travel for the vehicle,

including decisions such as which lane

to travel, where to position the vehicle

relative to other dynamic objects and

how much space to aord obstacles.

Importantly, the Planning system makes

decisions about how to safely guide

the vehicle under uncertain conditions,

ELEMENTS OF AUTOMATED DRIVING

such as when other vehicles on the road

may be blocked from view or if they behave

in unexpected ways. Multiple hypotheses

may lead to multiple possible plans, with the

ultimate choice depending on the actions

of other vehicles, pedestrians and more.

• Control executes the planned driving

trajectories set by the planning system,

which are updated constantly based on

new information. This is accomplished using

actuators that direct vehicle driving functions.

• Coordination communicates with other vehicles,

the road infrastructure and cloud databases.

• External Human Machine Interaction

(e-HMI) manages the communication of

information between the vehicle and humans

in the trac environment. Importantly, while

communication between driver and vehicle is

obviously important, particularly in managing

the transfer of vehicle operation, so too is

communication between the vehicle and

humans outside the vehicle, such as drivers of

other vehicles, rst responders and pedestrians.

KEY TOOLS FOR AUTOMATED DRIVING

An overlapping set of core technologies and

tools help make the fundamentals of automated

driving possible. The core technologies

and tools are described as follows:

• Classical controls, including proportional-

integral-derivative controllers and non-

linear gain scheduling, are used for low-

level controller tasks like set-point tracking

and regulation within actuators, such as

steering actuator or throttle actuator.

• Modern controls include state-space

representations, robust control, nonlinear

control and adaptive control. These mostly

explicit mathematical equations solve

apriori (oine) for the control value.

• Optimizations, such as model predictive control

(MPC) or receding horizon control (RHC), are

used to generate path trajectories, which

lower-level controllers subsequently track.

Optimizations rely on numerical methods to

solve/converge in real-time for the control value.

• Articial Intelligence (AI) is a broad term for

technology that processes information and

makes decisions to achieve a certain goal.

This may be accomplished via a rule-based

system, such as if a vehicle perceives a stop

sign and follows a programmed command to

stop, or via machine learning, in which a system

might process large volumes of information

• Computer Vision is the process of gathering

information from sensors and using it to

perceive the surrounding environment.

This process leverages AI to draw

knowledge from the data, identifying and

dierentiating individual elements, such

as cars, pedestrians, trees and roads.

• Predictive Algorithms are used to anticipate

the likely behavior of other objects in the

road environment, such as the expected

future position of another vehicle on

the road based on its current trajectory

and proximity to other vehicles.

• Decision Algorithms choose the vehicle’s

proper path based on the predicted

behavior of others on the road. Importantly,

decision algorithms must operate despite

uncertainty, which varies based on conditions,

including visibility and trac congestion.

• Maps are baseline representations of the

core elements of the physical world the

vehicle occupies. These can be generated

ahead of time, such as high-denition maps,

to be used by a vehicle when it enters an

environment, or generated in real time (on-the-

y) using algorithms, such as Simultaneous

Localization and Mapping (SLAM).

• Sensors gather data from the driving

environment or from the vehicle itself. These

include systems that gather data about the

world, such as cameras, sonar, LiDAR and

RADAR; those that track location, such as GNSS;

and those that monitor the movement of the

vehicle itself, such as inertial measurement

units or wheel speed and angle monitors.

• Actuators are used to control the physical

operation of the vehicle, opening or closing the

throttle, turning the wheels or engaging the

brakes. Importantly, while computers rapidly

perform much of automated driving, actuators

are limited by physical constraints, including

vehicle dynamics and the speed of the

actuator itself. Thus, automated drive systems

must account for the lag between issuing

commands and the vehicle’s physical response.

• Simulation is used to test the performance

of automated driving software in a virtual

environment. Data gathered from real-world

testing is used to recreate a variety of trac

scenarios digitally, which are then used

to test and measure system response and

to promote proper operation. Automated

driving software can be tested in both the

car and simulator at the same time, while

engineers shift back and forth seamlessly

to allow for continuous integration testing.

Driving systems can also be operated in

multiple simulation instances at the same

time, allowing for the relatively-rapid creation

of billions of miles of training and test data.

• V2X Communication consists of a direct

information exchange between vehicles with

roadside trac management systems and

with pedestrians via dedicated short-range

communication (DSRC) and/or via cellular

networks. These vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),

vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-

to-pedestrian (V2P) communications share

information about road signals, signs, road

conditions and other vehicles or pedestrians

that may be dicult to see. They can also alert

drivers of approaching vehicles, pedestrians,

red lights, and slow or stationary vehicles.

Vehicle-to-network (V2N) supports map data

generation and map data updates, as well

as various kinds of information delivery and

remote control. Together, V2X communications

provide an additional means for automation to

gain knowledge about surrounding trac. The

obtained information is combined with data

from on-board sensors to enable the vehicle

to make better decisions for vehicle control,

trac safety, eciency and driver interaction.

1919

The industry faces various challenges

to realize and popularize automated

driving. These include legal/regulatory

developments, social-system reform

and the time needed for societal

acceptance, with the detailed situation

varying between countries and regions.

Automated driving technology also

depends on other industries that provide

key technologies that together make up

the automated driving ecosystem. Key

subjects, listed below, typically reect

geographical or cultural dierences,

globally and regionally. Therefore,

one key and unique success factor

for automated driving is the level of

collaboration and cooperation with

various stakeholders who are not always

actors in the traditional auto industry.

Realizing and popularizing automated

driving will call for appreciating their

expectations. Industry collaboration

in non-competitive areas that act

as a foundation of systems for

automated driving and vehicles, such

as infrastructure or social systems,

is an eective way forward.

For example, in Japan, SIP (Cross

ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion

Program) under the Japan Cabinet Oce,

identies areas of collaborative work and

promotes research and development

among relevant stakeholders. SIP

collaboration scope includes dynamic

mapping and cybersecurity.

For some technologies, regional or

global harmonization and collaboration

across borders would be required

to establish a common shared

foundation. With such a foundation,

we can accelerate our technology

development toward improving our

customers’ safety and toward enhancing

freedom and mobility eciency.

CHALLENGES FACING AUTOMATED

DRIVING DEVELOPMENT

LEGAL / REGULATORY

FRAMEWORK CHALLENGES

• Infrastructure (Trac Design and

Management, Road Construction)

• Cybersecurity

• Data Privacy

• Safety Assurance (Design, Construction,

Performance, Validation)

• Social System (Vehicle Registration,

Licensing, Driving Education and

Training, Trac Rules, Insurance, Law

Enforcement, Crash Investigation, Safety

and Emission Inspections, etc.)

SOCIAL CHALLENGES

• Regional Dierences (Custom & Behavior, Tacit

Driving Manner and Rules, Ethical Perceptions)

• Social Acceptance (Safety Concerns)

• Sustainable solutions

(Smart Cities, Urban Planning)

TOYOTA COMPANIES WORKING

ON AUTOMATED TECHNOLOGY

JAPAN

• Toyota Motor Corporation: TMC’s

Advanced R&D and Engineering Company

leads the company’s eorts to develop

automated driving technologies at

the global level, pulling together the

resources and work of all the other entities

listed here, in addition to organizing

the research, development and testing

of these technologies by all relevant

functions at Toyota Motor Corporation.

• Toyota Research Institute – Advanced

Development (TRI-AD): Launched in

March 2018, TRI-AD is a company Toyota,

Aisin and Denso organized that works

in collaboration with the U.S.-based

Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The

company’s mission is to leverage the

cutting-edge research in AI for automated

driving created by TRI into real products

that can have a substantial positive

impact on mobility for the world.

• Toyota Central Research & Development

Laboratories: TCRDL contributes to the

present and future businesses of the

Toyota Group by conducting research in a

variety of elds. At the same time, it surveys

global technology trends and explores

new elds of science to propose a vision of

the future that will lead to new businesses

and contribute to the advancement of

science, technology and industry.

TOYOTA’S AUTOMATED DRIVING

PROGRAMS, PARTNERSHIPS,

AND INVESTMENTS

NORTH AMERICA

• Toyota Research Institute (TRI): Toyota Research

Institute is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota

Motor North America under the direction of

Dr. Gill Pratt. The company, established in

2015, aims to strengthen Toyota’s research

structure and has four initial mandates:

1) enhance the safety of automobiles, 2)

increase access to cars to those who cannot

otherwise drive, 3) translate Toyota’s expertise

in creating products for outdoor mobility

into products for indoor mobility and 4)

accelerate scientic discovery by applying

techniques from AI and machine learning.

• Toyota Motor North America Research and

Development (TMNA R&D): Founded in 1977 in

Ann Arbor, Michigan, and formerly a division

of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing

North America, Inc. (TEMA), TMNA R&D provides

everything from engineering design and

prototype building to testing and evaluation

of vehicles, parts and materials for Toyota’s

North American vehicles. It includes research

divisions studying Next Generation Mobility

and Society Research, Cloud Infrastructure

Architecture, Intelligent Computing, Network,

and System & Software. It is also the home of

Toyota’s newly established North American

purchasing and supplier center. With facilities

in Michigan, California and Arizona, TMNA

R&D also handles emissions certication,

technical research, regulatory aairs and more.

• Toyota Collaborative Safety Research

Center (CSRC): CSRC partners with leading

universities, hospitals, research institutions

and federal agencies, with a focus on safety

research projects aimed at developing and

bringing to market new and advanced safety

technologies. Research areas include active/

passive integration, human experience,

driver state detection and big data/safety

analytics, with results shared publicly

with other companies and academia.

• Toyota Connected: TOYOTA Connected leads

Toyota’s global development of mobility

services for consumers, businesses and

government, powered by vehicle data science,

machine learning and contextual data services.

It pioneers the development of Toyota’s Mobility

Services Platform (MSPF), a global, cloud-

based digital ecosystem that provides the tools

necessary to bring to market mobility services.

• Toyota AI Ventures: Toyota AI Ventures

is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital

subsidiary of Toyota Research Institute that

invests in promising startups from around

the world. The fund focuses on companies

developing solutions in AI, robotics,

autonomous mobility, data and cloud

technology that share its mission of improving

the quality of human life through AI.

EUROPE

• Toyota Research on Automated Cars in Europe

(TRACE): Toyota Motor Europe’s Advanced

Research team in Brussels collaborates with

experts across Europe in the eld of computer

vision for automation. It is organized loosely

around a lab structure named TRACE (Toyota

Research on Automated Cars in Europe).

Current partners include KU Leuven, University

of Cambridge, CTU Prague, Max Planck Institute

Saarbrücken and ETH in Zürich. Each partner

contributes with unique research algorithms, and

all elements are integrated into the experimental

vehicles under the responsibility of KU Leuven.

Current activities include state-of-the-art

deep learning algorithms for object detection,

robust and precise tracking, and full scene

segmentation and classication. Monocular

and stereo-camera algorithms provide

long-range depth measurements. The

objective is real time-free space estimation

for path planning and vehicle control.

TOYOTA COLLABORATIONS FOR AUTOMATED

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

The CSAIL-Toyota Joint Research Center

projects range from autonomy to self-awareness.

Research is aimed at furthering the development

of automated driving technologies.

• Stanford University: Stanford’s SAIL laboratory

is engaged in research projects that include

human-computer and human-robot interactions.

The focus is on developing innovative and

impactful approaches, algorithms, and data.

The approach includes research in perception,

learning, reasoning and interaction.

• University of Michigan: TRI’s Ann Arbor research

facility with University of Michigan focuses on

research into enhanced driving safety, partner

robotics and indoor mobility, automated

driving, and student learning and diversity.

COLLABORATIVE SAFETY RESEARCH CENTER (CSRC)

• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University

of Virginia, Ohio State University: A project

attempting to quantify key occupant responses

(kinematics, kinetics and muscle activity) to

evasive swerving and emergency braking using

both adult and child subjects on a test track.

• Virginia Tech: A research study attempting to

estimate the Residual Safety Problem after

Integrated Safety Systems (ISS) is deployed in

2025. ISS consists of all active (auto braking

for vehicle, pedestrian, bicyclist, lane keeping,

etc.) and passive safety systems (advanced

airbag, curtain shield airbag, roof strength,

pedestrian protection active hood, etc.).

• University of Michigan Transportation

Research Institute: An investigation into

kinematics of minimally aware adult occupants

exposed to Automatic Emergency Braking

(AEB) and evasive maneuvers on a test track.

• University of Iowa: Research attempting

to measure the response characteristics

and estimated benet with respect to

reduction in injury/fatalities of adaptive

headlamp system that highlights detected

pedestrians and bicyclists using both driver

and pedestrian/bicycle simulator study.

• TASI – Indiana University, Purdue University

at Indianapolis: A project attempting to

develop test scenarios and methods for the

evaluation of vehicle road departure warning

and assist and control systems on a test track.

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Age Lab: A project attempting to develop a

deep-learning-based, full-scene recognition

of vehicle environment from a vision sensor.

Examples are vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists,

trac signs, buildings, curbs, etc.

• University of Wisconsin: A project attempting

to provide a theoretical and mathematical

framework of how drivers communicate

with each other in an intersection.

• University of California at San Diego: A project

attempting to provide a computational

prediction model for a transfer of control

between the automation and the human

driver. The model has factors originated

from human motor and perceptual

behaviors, scenarios and environments.

• University of Iowa – National Advanced

Driving Simulator: A project attempting to

provide a meaningful and useful dataset

of driver behaviors when encountering

situations where transfer of control between

automation and the human is required.

TOYOTA SUPPORTING STANDARDS OF

AUTOMATED VEHICLE SYSTEM TESTING

Beyond our research programs, Toyota is also

working to improve the safety of automated

technology testing, development and

deployment industry wide through Automated

Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC) and the SAE

standards development process. The AVSC works

to create a principles-based safety framework to

guide the development of common standards

for eet-managed vehicles equipped with SAE

Level 4 and 5 automation and to harmonize the

range of programs underway at organizations

and standards bodies around the world. In

addition, the well-established SAE standards

development process has already resulted

in publication of multiple documents.

• The Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium™

(AVSC) is an industry program of SAE Industry

Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC®) building

on principles that will inform and help lead

to industrywide standards for advancing

automated driving systems. The members of

this consortium have long been focused on the

development of safe, reliable and high-quality

vehicles, and they are committed to applying

these same principles to SAE Level 4 and

Level 5 automated vehicles so communities,

government entities and the public can be

condent these vehicles will be deployed safely.

• SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC®)

is an aliate of SAE International. The SAE ITC

team specializes in establishing and managing

consortia by providing proven processes, tools

and resources. ITC enables public, private,

academic and government organizations

to connect and collaborate in neutral,

pre-competitive forums thus empowering

the global setting and implementation of

strategic business improvements in highly

engineered industries. (www.sae-itc.com)

TOYOTA COLLABORATIONS TO EDUCATE

THE PUBLIC ABOUT AUTOMATED VEHICLES

Toyota believes in the importance of education

to driving safety. It is a key component of our

Integrated Safety Management Concept, through

which we work to promote safety at dierent

stages of driving, including parking, active safety,

pre-collision safety, passive safety and rescue. The

emergence of automated technology presents

new important consumer education needs,

because these vehicles would fundamentally alter

the vehicle’s existing relationship with its driver,

its passengers, and other road users, such as

drivers of other vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.

To support education programs more directly,

Toyota has joined with a coalition of industry,

nonprot and academic institutions to launch

Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE).

It represents the spectrum of stakeholders who

believe in the potential of automated technology

and includes advocates for the blind, seniors

and other groups seeking new mobility options.

Industry members include traditional automakers,

parts makers and technology companies. PAVE

also includes insurers seeking to reduce the

human and nancial costs of road crashes

and an advisory group of leading academic

institutions supporting PAVE’s activities.

The group has one goal – to inform and

educate the public and policymakers on the

facts regarding automated technology. The

organization is purely educational and does

not advocate for a particular technology or for

specic public policies. Its members believe

that to fully realize the benets of automated

technology, policymakers and the public need

factual information about the present and future

state of technology and its potential benets.

Toyota is excited to support the educational

activities that PAVE will launch, including a

website and social media channels providing

facts about the potential and reality of automated

technology; hands-on public demonstration

events, so Americans can see, feel, and experience

automated technologies; policymaker workshops

to help federal, state and local ocials make

informed decisions; and training materials for auto

dealers to help their customers understand and

make use of the technology in vehicles today.

Partnership for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE):

TOYOTA INVESTMENTS IN AUTOMATED DRIVING

AND RELATED TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES

Toyota invests in a broad range of

companies through direct investment,

investment funds established in partnership

with nancial institutions, and Toyota AI

Ventures. Portfolio companies include:

• Apex.AI aims to develop reliable, safe, and

certied software for autonomous mobility

systems. Its initial products are Apex.OS, a

robust software framework built on the Robot

Operating System (ROS), and Apex.Autonomy,

a set of software building blocks that enables

developers to create a custom autonomy stack.

• Blackmore develops compact, robust

Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave

(FMCW) LiDAR sensors and supporting

analytic tools and software. Blackmore’s

technology is designed for use in a variety

of intense, mission-critical automotive,

geospatial and industrial environments

where cost and performance specications

limit more traditional sensors.

• Boxbot works to address the last-mile problem

in logistics through automation. Through a

combination of proprietary delivery software,

automated local hubs and tech-enabled eets,

Boxbot makes package deliveries much easier

to receive and less expensive to manage.

• Connected Signals is a connected vehicle

data analytics company that seeks to provide

predictive, real-time, trac signal information

using existing infrastructure. This data,

derived using sophisticated proprietary

models, supports applications that improve

safety, increase fuel eciency, reduce

carbon emissions and improve trac ow.

• Elementary Robotics builds aordable,

intelligent robot assistants designed

to help people at home and work.

• Embodied develops companion robots that aim

to revolutionize care and wellness to enhance

quality of life for individuals and families.

• Intuition Robotics develops social companion

technologies designed to redene the

experience between humans and machines.

The company’s cognitive AI platform and

new interaction modalities enable devices

to learn about users, adapt to them

and proactively engage with them.

• Joby Aviation is an electric mobility company

that is building a fully-electric vertical take-

o and landing passenger aircraft optimized

to deliver air-transportation-as-a-service.

The company’s 5-seat aircraft is designed

to y at least 150 miles on a charge, to be

faster than existing rotorcraft and to be

signicantly quieter than conventional aircraft.

• May Mobility brings communities closer

together with eets of self-driving vehicles

designed to make short-distance travel

safe, personal and eortless. May Mobility’s

fully-managed, right-sized microtransit

service helps people engage more fully

in the places where they live and work.

• Metawave seeks to revolutionize the future of

wireless communications and automotive radar

sensing. Leveraging adaptive metamaterials

and AI, Metawave is building high-performance

radars capable of 4D point-cloud imaging,

non-line of sight object detection and

vehicle-to-vehicle communication to make

cars smarter and more connected.

• Nauto combines leading-edge vehicle

hardware with an AI platform to make any car

a smart car, helping alert professional drivers

to potential hazards outside the vehicle or

distraction inside and oering eet managers

insight and feedback to help drivers improve.

• Parallel Domain provides 3D environment

generation software for automated vehicle

simulation. The automated platform

generates high-delity living worlds

with no manual labor and oers clients

congurable, detailed and scalable simulation

environments designed to accelerate the

time to safety for vehicles with automation.

• Perceptive Automata works to solve one of

the hardest problems of automated driving –

enabling vehicles to predict and understand

human behavior. It develops autonomous

systems to anticipate human reactions so

they can navigate safely and smoothly around

pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers.

• Realtime Robotics develops a proprietary

special-purpose processor designed to

allow robotic systems to react rapidly to

their environments and compute how and

where to move as their situation changes.

• Sea Machines Robotics pioneers autonomous

control and advanced perception systems

for the maritime industry. The company

builds autonomous vessel software and

systems designed to increase the safety,

eciency and performance of ships,

workboats and commercial vessels.

• SLAMcore develops visual tracking and

mapping algorithms, more commonly

referred to as Simultaneous Localization

and Mapping (SLAM), for ground-based

and ying robots. SLAMcore’s Spatial AI

solutions are designed to translate sensor

information into spatial intelligence to

close the loop between perception and

action for autonomous machines.

• Third Wave Automation combines the latest

in deep-learning research with modern

robotics and software practices to bring

autonomy to the supply chain and logistics

industries. Its mission is to provide solutions

that deploy safely and immediately improve

warehouse throughput and eciency.

TOYOTA’S DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AT TOYOTA

RESEARCH INSTITUTE (AS OF MARCH 2020):

System Safety

Toyota designs its core automated technology

and the protocols used in its testing to

reinforce safety. Collectively, this approach

is built on a strong safety culture that

incorporates best practices for functional

safety into our research activities, which

are in turn overseen by multiple layers of

institutional controls as research is transformed,

rened and prepared for production.

Safety Driver

Currently, Toyota uses a trained Safety

Driver in the U.S. to oversee and control the

operations of the automated technology

during closed course and public road testing.

Though test vehicles operate in tightly controlled

design domains, the trac environment is

complex and unpredictable. As a result, Safety

Drivers are not merely a backstop in case of an

unexpected disengagement or a stopgap on

the road to full automation. Rather, they are a

key component of the development vehicle’s

overall safety case that can perceive and

prevent unsafe driving behavior in situations

that push the boundaries of the technology.

New Safety Drivers must complete an extensive

training program, which includes multiple levels

of qualication to allow for the various types

of vehicles in the Toyota research eet and

for both manual and automated operation. In

total, trainees spend one month in Toyota’s test

facilities in California or Michigan to go through

initial training, including observation time

shadowing instructors, fault injection training

on closed courses, in-class lectures, in-car

training on closed courses and public roads, and

closed-course emergency drills. Trainees also

complete two days of advanced defensive driver

training at Toyota’s Arizona Proving Grounds.

TRI follows, as appropriate, the AVSC’s best

practice document entitled: AVSC Best Practice

for in-vehicle fallback test driver (safety operator)

selection, training, and oversight procedures

for vehicles with automation under test.

System Architecture

As part of our functional safety approach,

we designed the software and systems that

control Toyota’s automated technology to

reinforce safety. Vehicles are controlled by

the driving system, which makes decisions

about vehicle behavior on the road. In turn,

the driving system is governed by a separate

safety system that is run via a separate code

base on separate hardware. This safety system

imposes limits on the driving system, such as

steering, braking and acceleration boundaries.

This keeps vehicle behavior within safe limits

such that the driving conditions would likely

remain within the Safety Driver’s capability of

safely taking control of the vehicle if needed.

Vehicle Cybersecurity

With vehicles becoming more connected, Toyota

strives to address ever-changing cybersecurity

risks. And as a result, we continue our eorts to

strengthen and further improve the security of

our vehicles. This includes collaborating with

other industry members to further strengthen

automotive cybersecurity with respect to vehicle

technologies. Among other steps, Toyota was

a founding member of the Auto-ISAC focused

on sharing cybersecurity threat information

within the auto industry and the development

of automotive cybersecurity best practices.

With respect to the development and testing

of automated technology, Toyota protects

the vehicles, and the servers they talk to,

from general network access via a multilayer

security architecture. Vehicle software and

servers are manually updated on a routine

basis, helping ensure the use of the latest

software releases including functional

improvements, bug-xes and underlying

software security updates. Testing data is

logged locally, then transferred, stored and

protected by a multi-layer security architecture.

In addition, redundancy is built into the

automated technology itself. Test vehicles use

several dierent methods to establish constant,

real-time situational awareness of the driving

environment inside and outside the vehicle. The

control system is designed to evaluate all of the

available data and not rely solely on one input.

Acceleration, braking and steering controls

are segmented from the rest of the automated

system through a separate software compute

box to lower the risk of crucial functions being

compromised. This means errors in the driving

PC are redundantly checked for soundness

by the control unit, so there is less likelihood

of unduly inuencing system performance.

In addition, the systems possess diagnostic

capabilities to assess whether both external

and built-in sensors are operational and detect

failures or other interruptions of service.

Federal, State, and Local Laws

Toyota complies with applicable federal,

state and local laws when testing automated

technology, including test driving in both

manual and automated operation. We are

also actively engaged through industry

organizations and with other stakeholders

to support the development of appropriate

regulatory standards that inspire innovation

and protect everyone who shares the road.

Some of the following features are

available only in specic markets or

may be limited in their capabilities

on a market-by-market basis.

TOYOTA SAFETY SENSE AND LEXUS

SAFETY SYSTEM + FEATURES

• Pre-collision System – Vehicle and

Pedestrian Detection: Available on

Toyota Safety Sense™ and Lexus Safety

System+, Pre-Collision System - Vehicle

and Pedestrian Detection uses an in-

vehicle camera and radar to help detect a

vehicle or a pedestrian in front of you and

can help to mitigate or avoid a potential

collision. If the system determines a frontal

collision is likely, it prompts the driver to

take action using audio and visual alerts.

If the driver notices the potential collision

and applies the brakes, the system may

apply additional force using Brake Assist.

If the driver doesn’t brake in time, the

system may automatically apply the brakes

to reduce speed to help minimize the

likelihood of a frontal collision or reduce

its severity. New vehicles equipped with

TSS 2.0/TSS 2.5/TSS 2.5+/LSS+ 2.0/LSS+ 2.5

also have bicyclist detection and enhanced

low-light pedestrian detection capabilities.

• Pre-Collision System with active

steering assist: Available on Lexus Safety

System+ A, Pre-Collision System with

active steering assist has the potential

to help reduce the severity of or prevent

collisions with a preceding pedestrian that

may not be avoided through automatic

emergency braking alone. The system is

designed to detect certain situations where

there is a high probability of a collision

with a pedestrian in the vehicle’s lane

of travel or with a continuous structure,

such as a guardrail. If the system is able

to recognize the lane markers on both

sides of the vehicle and determines

avoiding or mitigating a collision through

brake control alone may not be likely,

but that it might be avoided or mitigated

with steering assist, the system assists

in collision mitigation or prevention by

providing a limited amount of automatic

steering assist within the lane in addition to

activating an alert and applying the brakes.

• Front Lateral Side Pre-Collision System:

Available on Lexus Safety System+ A, Front

Lateral Side Pre-Collision System enhances

the capability of the standard Pre-Collision

system with lateral side radar designed to

detect vehicles approaching diagonally

TECHNOLOGY ON TOYOTA VEHICLES

in front of the Lexus. If the system determines

a collision may occur, it warns the driver to

perform evasive maneuvers. Additionally, if the

system determines there is a high probability

for a collision, Brake Assist is applied, which can

help the driver avoid a collision or mitigate the

impact force to occupants and the vehicle.

• Lane Departure Alert: Lane Departure Alert

helps you stay in your lane. Using a forward-

looking camera, the system is designed to

detect visible painted lane markings on the

road and alert you if you are inadvertently

moving out of your lane. The system will alert

you with an audible beeping sound and an

indicator light on the instrument panel will

ash so you can then take corrective action.

• Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist

Function: The Lane Departure Alert helps you

stay in your lane. Using a specialized camera,

the system is designed to detect visible painted

lane markings on the road and alert you if you are

inadvertently moving out of your lane. The system

will alert you with an audible beeping sound and

indicator light on the instrument panel will ash

so you can then take corrective action. The Lane

Departure Alert with Steering Assist system brings

added functionality. Should the system determine

the driver is not taking corrective steering

action, the Steering Assist function will initiate

and provide gentle corrective steering when

necessary to help keep the vehicle in the lane.

• LSS+ Lane Keeping Assist (LKA): When the

Radar Cruise Control is activated and the

system senses the vehicle deviating from its

lane, LKA helps the car stay on course near the

center of the lane by continuously applying

a small amount of counter-steering force to

keep the vehicle in the center of the lane.

• TSS Lane Tracing Assist: When Full-Speed Range

Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) is enabled

and lane markers are visible, Lane Tracing Assist

(LTA) uses the lines on the road and preceding

vehicles to help keep the vehicle centered while

also displaying the vehicle’s position on the

vehicle’s Multi-Information Display (MID) screen.

The system was designed to reduce driver strain

and increase convenience and benet drivers

most during trac jams—but it can be turned

o using the MID. (TSS 2.0/LSS+ 2.0 only)

• Automatic High Beam: Automatic High Beams

is designed to help drivers see more of what’s

ahead at nighttime while limiting glare to

other drivers. When enabled, this feature uses

a forward-looking camera to help detect the

headlights of oncoming vehicles and taillights

of vehicles in front of you, then automatically

switches between high and low beams to

enhance forward visibility. By using high

beams more frequently, AHB may help drivers

to detect vehicles and obstacles earlier.

• Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC): While

staying within a preset speed range, the

system maintains a pre-set distance between

vehicles to help make long highway drives

less tiring. For vehicles equipped with Full

Speed Range DRCC capability, the system

operates at all speeds. This enables low-speed

following, matching speed and, under certain

circumstances, stopping before colliding

with preceding vehicles on highways.

• Front Cross-Trac Alert: Available on Lexus

Safety System+ A, Front Cross-Trac Alert is

designed to warn the driver of the presence

of crossing vehicles at intersections, thereby

potentially reducing the severity of or

preventing some intersection collisions. FCTA

uses the front lateral side radar sensors to

detect and alert the driver of approaching

vehicles that may cross the vehicle’s path. If

the approaching vehicle or bicycle continues

its trajectory, the system is designed to quickly

alert the driver in two stages via the available

HUD and Panoramic View Monitor before the

vehicle/bicycle enters the path of the Lexus.

• Road Sign Assist: Using a forward-facing

intelligent camera, Road Sign Assist (RSA) is

designed to detect speed limit signs, stop

signs, do not enter signs and yield signs

and display them on the vehicle’s Multi-

Information Display. (TSS 2.0/LSS+ 2.0 only)

ADDITIONAL FEATURES ON MANY

TOYOTA AND LEXUS VEHICLES

• Panoramic View Monitor: High-resolution

cameras mounted on the front, sides and rear

of the vehicle are designed to give drivers a

“bird’s-eye view” of the near environment.

Moving View and See-Through View options

create a composite image of the vehicle’s

surroundings as on-screen guides help assist

with parking and tight maneuvering.

• Parking Assist Sonar: Parking Assist Sonar uses

ultrasonic sensors integrated into the bumpers

designed to detect surrounding objects.

Using audible tones and an indicator on the

multimedia display, the system can notify you

of a detected object’s location and proximity to

help with routine tasks, such as parallel parking.

• Intelligent Clearance Sonar (ICS): Intelligent

Clearance Sonar scans for stationary objects,

such as walls or parked cars. Should the

system anticipate a collision, it will emit an

audible alert, reduce engine or motor output,

and may automatically apply the brakes.

• Intelligent Parking Assist (IPA): Intelligent

Parking Assist uses ultrasonic sensors to

detect surrounding objects and identify

parking spaces. The driver stops the car before

the open parking space and by pushing a

single button, the system guides drivers to

the right position for reverse parking and

assists drivers in backing into the space.

• Blind Spot Monitor (BSM): BSM is a system

that aims to reduce accidents by alerting the

driver to other vehicles in the vehicle’s blind

spot diagonally behind the driver’s seat and

visual display in the side mirrors and while

changing lanes by using rear side radars.

• Rear Cross Trac Alert (RCTA): RCTA is designed

to provide audible and visual indicators, alerting

the driver when a vehicle approaches while

backing out of a driveway or parking space.

• Rear Cross Trac Auto Brake (RCTAB):

RCTAB is designed to detect a vehicle using

a rear camera. And in the case of a possible

collision, it helps to minimize damages

by using alerts and brake control.

• Intelligent Adaptive Front-Lighting

System (AFS): Intelligent AFS is designed to

redirect low-beam headlamp units in accordance

with the steering angle and vehicle speed at

night to improve visibility during cornering.

• Approaching Vehicle Audible System (AVAS):

EV-operated (Electric Vehicle) hybrid cars

run quietly. When the vehicle is driven at up

to 25km/h or reversing, the system emits an

alert sound to help notify pedestrians

• Safety Connect: Safety Connect consists

of the following four features:

• Automatic Collision Notication – Toyota’s

24/7 response center is automatically notied

in the event of an airbag deployment or

severe rear-end collision. The 24/7 response

center agent will attempt to speak with the

vehicle’s occupants and then notify local

emergency services to request dispatch of

emergency services to the vehicle’s location.

• Emergency Assistance Button – Engaging

the Emergency Assistance button in

your vehicle can connect you with a 24/7

response center agent who can request

dispatch of necessary emergency services

to your vehicle’s location in case of a

medical or other emergency on the road.

• Enhanced Roadside Assistance – pressing

the Emergency Assistance Button

connects to 24/7 Roadside Assistance.

• Stolen Vehicle Locator – in a vehicle-theft

situation, it noties our response center

so agents can assist authorities in locating

your vehicle using GPS technology.