TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp will step faster to independent vehicles when it starts rolling out a variety of superior active safety structures across its mass-market lineup in early 2015.
The new or re-engineered technologies encompass more sophisticated precrash braking packages, an improved auto-parking feature, a next-generation auto-adjust headlamp and a vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communication system.
The auto-parking and vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems will debut in Japan and migrate to other markets, including the U.S. Other technologies, including two new precrash braking packages, will be released in the U.S. as early as next year.
Pricing wasn’t disclosed, but the goal is to introduce affordable technologies in mass-volume nameplates, said Moritaka Yoshida, Toyota’s chief safety technology officer.
He said automakers have reached a point of diminishing returns from improvements in passive systems such as seat belts. Faster gains will come from technologies that prevent crashes in the first place, he said.
“There is a limit to reducing the number of fatalities through passive safety,” Yoshida said. “We must also focus on active safety.”
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