Toyota offers AI-enabled crash avoidance tech to rivals amid auto safety push

Purpose of ‘Guardian’ system is to monitor road conditions, driver awareness, step in when needed to brake, swerve, or accelerate through dangerous circumstances

Toyota has argued that self-driving car technology still has many hurdles to clear before it is ready for widespread consumer use, but that the artificial intelligence (AI) and sensor research entering it can be leveraged earlier to cut down on crashes.As it moves toward introducing that capability for its own vehicles, the auto giant wants to provide it to rivals to help make roads safer.

Rather than drive the car autonomously, the purpose of the company’s ‘Guardian’ system that has been in development for the past two years is to actively monitor road conditions and driver awareness, and step in when needed to brake,swerve, or accelerate through dangerous circumstances, the company said at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Gill Pratt, CEO of the Silicon Valleybased Toyota Research Institute (TRI) that is working on perfecting both this system and Toyota’s self-driving tech, did not say precisely when Toyota cars will start getting Guardian capability, but he said that it is on the way.

“We believe in it so much, we would like to see it on every car on the road, not just Toyotas,” Pratt said at Toyota’s press conference on Monday. “And today we are announcing that we will offer it to the industry.”

TRI has already “had talks with many different players” about the system, Pratt said, without elaborating. Likewise, Toyota has not yet figured out whether it would license the technology to other companies or even provide the needed hardware or software required. “What we are willing to say is that we will not keep it proprietary only to ourselves,” he said.

Whether Toyota’s rivals in the highly competitive auto industry actually take up its offer remains to be seen. More than a decade ago, Toyota offered to provide the hybrid-electric powertrain system developed for the Prius to competitors but found few takers beyond its affiliated companies.

With Guardian, “the driver is in control of the car at all times except in those cases where Guardian anticipates a pending incident, alerts the driver, and decides to employ a corrective response in coordination with driver input,” Pratt said. “In this way, Guardian combines and coordinates the skills and strengths of the human and the machine.”

Toyota’s emphasis on using AI-enabled technology to cut down on crashes coincides with safety becoming a top concern for automated vehicles following last March’s fatal crash in which a self-driving Uber test vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian crossing a dark Tempe, Arizona street. Without mentioning that event, a new initiative of auto, tech, and safety advocates, including Toyota, Waymo, General Motors’ Cruise,Audi, and Nvidia, debuted at the CES with a goal of helping the public better understand the potential benefits of self-driving tech.

Partners for Automated Vehicle Education, or PAVE, said it is going to hold events across the US to explain advanced drivers assistance, and self-driving technology to consumers and public officials, and hold workshops for local, state, and federal regulators.

The group is not saying how much it plans to spend on these efforts, and emphasised that it is not going to be a lobbying organisation.

“PAVE recognises the need to invest in public information—in ensuring consumers and policymakers understand what is real, what’s possible, and what is rumour or speculation,” said Mark Del Rosso, president of Audi’s US unit and co-chair of PAVE.

TOYOTA HAS NOT YET FIGURED OUT WHETHER IT WOULD LICENSE THE TECHNOLOGY TO OTHER COMPANIES OR EVEN PROVIDE THE NEEDED HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE REQUIRED