Honda Vision 2030
WE REVEAL THE COMPANY’S TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP
AFEW things strike you when entering the Honda research and development facility in Tochigi, Japan. Firstly, all the employees are dressed in brilliant-white attire more suited to a private hospital than an automotive rm. Everyone is also friendly and it is dif cult to distinguish management from the oor workers. This was con rmed when Takahiro Hachigo, Honda’s president and CEO, entered wearing the same out t to deliver his speech about the future of Honda technology. The only reason we could tell it was him was because the large room quite suddenly went quiet.
Hachigo’s address focused primarily on two elements: the advancement of mobility; and creating value to people’s lives towards 2030. This formed the basis of the technologies experienced rst-hand.
AUTONOMOUS DRIVING: ON THE HIGHWAY
The idea of autonomous driving, according to Honda, is not to take driving pleasure away from drivers, but to ensure an accident-free and available-to-all mobility future. Honda Sensing technology, which features all the conventional safety systems, including lane-keep assist, forward-collision warning and adaptivecruise control, will soon be standard on all its automotive products.
As part of our trip to visit Honda was an opportunity to test this technology and easing my way to the oval at Tochigi behind the wheel of a Honda Legend, the engineer instructs me to hit the auto button on the steering wheel. An audible message and two blue lights con rm that I may remove my hands from the wheel and feet from the pedals. The car joins the circuit, indicator ashing, and continues to drive by itself. Another vehicle (strategically placed by a Honda engineer) is driving in the slow lane and obstructing my progress. The autonomous pilot casually indicates right and completes an overtaking manoeuvre smoothly and safely.
This is, according to Takahiro Hachigo, highway driving in a Honda by the year 2020. A head-up display and audible messages instil con dence in the driver and provide welcome assurance of the autonomous pilot’s intentions. The system uses cameras, radar, lidar (distance measurement by laser) and control ECU to provide input to the driving tasks and high-precision maps are employed in conjunction with the sensors for a more accurate picture.
In true aviation style, dual redundancy is built into the system to the point of having dual-battery backup. This means that, in case of a sensor failure, the system can still control the vehicle until the driver eventually takes over. If the driver fails to do this, the vehicle rst warns them before gradually coming to a safe stop with the hazards activated.
AUTONOMOUS DRIVING: CITY AND NEIGHBOURHOODS
This time, I am allowed to only ride as a passenger in the Honda Accord with the project engineer behind the steering wheel overseeing the next demonstration. The reason, I’m told, is that the technology needed for the complex driving situation encountered in a city or rural town is still in an early development phase. You need levelfour autonomous driving to accomplish this task and that will be available only in 2025.
As we pull off towards a course set out between the test facility’s buildings, the engineer hits the auto button and allows the autonomous pilot to take over. He also points to the three cameras behind the windscreen that relay the images of the road ahead to the control ECU. What makes the system extraordinary is that no GPSbased maps are used (because the signal is not always available) and the system is able to read the road in the same way a human would perceive it. As a guide, the road markings are not crucial and, instead, the technology is trained on the edge of the road. It even picks up intersections with stop signs, which the vehicle duly obeys.
The system will be updated and, at a later stage, with the other sensor incorporated in the autonomous highway-driving prototype vehicle. Another capability being developed is pedestrian (and cyclist) detection with avoidance strategies. Interestingly, the recognition software identi es the faces of pedestrians to predict their direction of movement and measure their speed. Once a certain number of autonomous Hondas are on the road, connected-car technology will allow them to learn from each other by gaining information from arti cial intelligence stored in the cloud.
FUTURE POWERTRAINS
Powertrain demonstrators in the shape of three Honda Claritys are waiting for us. Only the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) features an internalcombustion engine, with the other two vehicles electric (EV) and fuel-cell (FCV) powered. In essence, all three vehicles are electri ed and, according to Hachigo, two-thirds of vehicles sold by Honda in 2030 will be electri ed (mostly PHEV and FCV).
A quick drive in each reveals the smooth and torquey nature of the electric powertrains in the Clarity range, all available in selected markets. The PHEV feels slightly out of place when, after a high-acceleration demand from the driver, the petrol engine disturbs the calm in the cabin. Apart from the complexity and cost associated with hybrids, they do still make the most sense in terms of range, quick refuelling ability and cheap running costs.
The EV and FCV Claritys offer a similar driving experience. The pure electric version, unfortunately, has a limited range (128 km) owing to current lithium-ion battery technology, and a charging time of 30 minutes gets you 80% state of charge through DC fast charging
The FCV offers all the bene ts of the EV (as it is essentially electrically powered), but hydrogen, used in the fuel cell to generate electricity, faces challenges of storage, transportation, lack of infrastructure and production. Each vehicle has its pros and cons, and Honda is not prepared to gamble on only one.