Drift is already cool, but autonomous floating in the name of science is cooler. The Toyota Research Institute has teamed up with Stanford University to develop safer cars for ordinary drivers by driving its 2021 GR Supra on its own. Let us walk you through why.
As the Toyota website puts it, ‘The engineers are researching how the instincts of professional drivers and automated management technology can come together. Their goal is to design a new level of active safety technology and share it widely so that Toyota and other automakers can use it on the road. ”
In other words, professional managers have spent their lives developing their reflexes. These skills often have to do with reflexes and intuition, these are things that a computer still struggles to repeat – especially at high speeds or in challenging conditions. Using those professional managers to teach autonomous systems how to function better in situations where they need to make quick decisions.
It also looks sick as hell.
‘There are fatal vehicle accidents every day due to extreme situations where most drivers need superhuman skills avoid a collision, ” Gill Pratt, TRI’s CEO and chief scientist at Toyota, said. “The reality is that every driver is vulnerable, and to avoid an accident, drivers often have to perform maneuvers that are beyond their capabilities.”
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Toyota does note that most management does not require the above superhuman skills, but it is always good to plan for the extreme events. Collisions at highway speeds require quick reflexes. At the moment, autonomous cars know how to handle those situations, but the goal now is to avoid them altogether.
You can read more about the study by the “The opening of new dimensions: Movement planning and control for vehicles using brakes while driving ” published by Stanford University.