Toyota publishes retrospective article on safety feature development from 2010–2015

In the second article of a three-part series, Toyota shares safety advancements it has made on its vehicles since the 2010s.

The first article included a behind-the-scenes look at its pre-collision system (PCS) and an overview of major safety features over the last 70 years.

By the time Toyota Safety Sense rolled out in 2015, Toyota says it had already made decades of safety advancements, such as advanced structures, seatbelts, and air bags. The first active-safety features, like anti-lock brakes and vehicle stability control, followed soon after.

Moving into the 2010s, dramatic improvements in sensing technology, computing power, and software advancements, plus more widely available and smaller radar and cameras, led to further development of active safety features.

“It all added up to a leap forward on what cars could do to help mitigate collisions,” the article says. “This technology enabled Toyota to broaden its safety capabilities to include not only the drivers and their passengers, but other road users as well. By making vehicles more aware of the external environment in real time, Toyota could begin improving safety outcomes for other drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists —others likely to encounter a Toyota car or truck in the real world.”

Before Toyota Safey Sense (TSS), most Toyota and Lexus models were equipped with the STAR system, a collection of five safety features —Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Traction Control (TRAC), Anti-lock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA), and the Smart Stop Technology (SST).

The STAR system had been deployed as standard equipment on new Toyota models when TSS was announced in 2015. TSS uses a forward-facing camera and a forward-facing radar (TSS-P) or a forward-facing laser (TSS-C) to detect objects, lane markers, and oncoming headlights. The goal is to mitigate certain collisions and lane departures and reduce glare to oncoming vehicle drivers.

TSS was introduced on select models in 2015 in 68 countries in two versions — TSS-C for compact cars and TSS-P for mid-sized sedans, minivans, and SUVs.

The cornerstone technology was PCS, which was designed to sense other cars using a camera and a laser (TSS-C) or a radar (TSS-P).

In the first versions of TSS-C, the PCS was designed to apply automatic emergency braking (AEB) in certain emergencies involving other vehicles at speeds of 6 mph to 50 mph.

TSS-P, adding millimeter-wave radar, enabled crash-mitigation with other vehicles at speeds up to 110 mph. It was also designed to detect pedestrians in daytime conditions up to 50 mph. Both systems also included Automatic High Beam headlamps and Lane Departure Alert. TSS-P also included Dynamic Radar Cruise Control.

The next generation of TSS, TSS 2.0, focused on conditions outside the vehicle, adding some nighttime detection capability for pedestrians, daytime detection of bicyclists, steering assist functionality, Road Sign Assist, and the ability to detect road edges to the Lane Departure Alert feature.

In versions 2.5, 2.5+, and 3.0, Toyota continued to refine features like PCS with enhanced pedestrian and bicyclist detection. Emergency steering assist was also added to enhance the collision avoidance capability during emergency maneuvers around obstacles.

Proactive Driving Assist was added to TSS 3.0. The front-facing camera and radar provide gentle braking and steering support on curves. It also maintains a distance from other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists.

Toyota says it has worked over the years to improve its driver-assistance features to avoid false activations because that may annoy drivers and cause them to disable the features.

Jarod Duncan, a member of Toyota Motor North America (TMNA)’s integrated vehicle systems team, shared some questions they asked themselves. “How should the systems behave when I’m in the driver’s seat? Is the vehicle reacting naturally? What adjustments can we make to help customers be more confident?”

Kevin Ro, a member of TMNA’s Carbon Neutrality and Regulatory Affairs team, added, “Toyota is a research-based company. We’re often doing research and getting knowledge from many sources. We go into projects with data to explain our point of view and justify decisions.”

Toyota’s work on safety issues includes outside organizations, like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and independent university researchers, according to the article.

“Safety is part of respect for people,” Ro said. “We want our customers to be safe. Each person on our team thinks about their own families being in these vehicles. When they do their work, they take the whole safety aspect very seriously. It runs up and down the company.”

Images

Featured image: An illustration of Toyota’s Pre-Collision System. (Provided by Toyota)