Honda sends first consumer Level 3 autonomous car into showrooms, but only to 100 lucky Japanese leasers
- Reference: 1614927430
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/05/honda_offers_the_first_consumeravailable/
- Source link:
While the announcement of the new Legend sedan equipped with "SENSING Elite" technology does indeed appear to be a world's first, Honda's [1]announcement also reveals a few catches.
[2]
For starters, the car is only certified for autonomous ops in Japan.
Second, while the list price is 11 million yen (US$102,000), you can’t actually buy it as it’s available for lease only.
[3]
Third, there are only 100 of them available.
How does this thing work?
Honda says the SENSING Elite system uses a combination of three-dimensional high-definition maps, satnav and and external sensors to create a 360-degree model of the Legend's surrounds.
All that info lets the car perform "proper recognitions, predictions and decisions and applies a high-level control of acceleration, braking and steering to assist the driver to achieve high-quality and smooth driving."
While that's going on, Honda suggests human drivers could "watch television/DVD on the navigation screen or operate the navigation system to search for a destination address, which helps mitigate driver fatigue and stress while driving in a traffic jam."
A word on autonomy levels
The Society of Automotive Engineers offer a 0 to 5 scale to rate vehicle automation. Level 3 represents “conditional driving automation,” meaning the driver is sometimes driving and sometimes not, but must be ready to take the wheel if notified.
Level 0 is fully operated by humans while level 2 cars can accelerate, brake, steer and signal without driver supervision. Level 5 cars are fully automated and require no human attention in all conditions. Level 5 cars aren’t really a thing yet, although Tesla has [4]been saying they are “very close” since July 2020.
The car has three main tricks, which Honda describes as:
Adaptive in Lane Driving:
The system assists the driving and in following a car in front within a lane. The system drives the vehicle along the middle of the lane while maintaining the pre-set vehicle speed. When there is a car in front, the system assists in following while maintaining a proper following distance.
Active Lane Change Assist with Hands-off Function:
While driving using the Adaptive in Lane Driving, when the driver confirms safe surroundings and puts on the turn signal, the system assists acceleration/deceleration and steering for the lane change.
Active Lane Change with Hands-off Function:
While driving using the Adaptive in Lane Driving, when the driver switches on the Active Lane Change with Hands-off Function, the system assesses the situation and assists the lane change and/or passing of the other vehicle under certain conditions. When the system detects a car in front being driven at low speed, the system notifies the driver and then assists the passing and returning to the original lane.
This all happens under the watchful eye of inwards-facing cameras that check the driver is ready to take over.
If the car decides that's necessary, it will alert the driver to do so. Non-compliance will see the car slow down and pull over to the shoulder of a road.
If the human is still refusing to take over the car "further urges the driver to respond to the handover request using visual, auditory and tactile alerts including escalated alarm sounds and vibration on the driver’s seatbelt." If the driver does not respond to that the car will automatically decelerate until it reaches a stop, all while blasting the horn and hazard lights.
Elon Musk says he tried to sell Tesla to Apple, which didn’t bite and wouldn't even meet [5]READ MORE
Honda tested the car with around ten million possible real-world on-road scenarios, and approximately 1.3 million kilometers of test driving.
Honda believes autonomous vehicles will make roads more safe. The USA’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shares that vision, [6]stating :
Automated vehicles’ potential to save lives and reduce injuries is rooted in one critical and tragic fact: 94% of serious crashes are due to human error. Automated vehicles have the potential to remove human error from the crash equation, which will help protect drivers and passengers, as well as bicyclists and pedestrians.
However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety [7]approximates there is only one death for every 100 million miles driven.
OK... What colors are available?
[8]
The vehicle comes in Majestic Black Pearl, Platinum White Pearl, Super Platinum Metallic, Premium Deep Rosso Pearl, Modern Steel Metallic and Obsidian Blue Pearl. However, anything other than Modern Steel Metalllic and Obsidian Blue Pearl is going to cost you an extra 55,000 yen.®
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://global.honda/newsroom/news/2021/4210304eng-legend.html
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YEIPS@yLvckks9HCnSsKWwAAAA8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YEIPS@yLvckks9HCnSsKWwAAAA8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-autonomous-idUSKBN24A0HE
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/23/elon_musk_alleges_he_tried_to_sell_tesla_to_apple/
[6] https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles-safety
[7] https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YEIPS@yLvckks9HCnSsKWwAAAA8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I am not a passenger
I realise as an old fart that I will be accused of Ludditism but I actually enjoy driving, have driven hundreds of thousands of miles and still look forward to it.
My 1992 Landy has over 390000 kilometres on it, I like the proper hand brake it has and the manual gearbox and drive selection, it will go virtually anywhere (as opposed to going everywhere virtually) and I get to choose how it goes about getting there.
On the safety aspect, if autonomous vehicles are going to offer a huge increase in safety and a consequent drop in accidents, potetially to zero, where wil that leave the insurance companies?
Motor insurance will lose its raizon d'etre
"I will be accused of Ludditism"
@Chris G
You'll only be accused of being a Luddite by folks that haven't done their homework. The Luddites were not against new machinery - they were against specific new machinery that put them out of work. In fact, they used to break machines selectively, leaving intact those that didn't threaten their livelihood, even on the same factory floor.
BTW I once had an ex-army heavyweight 109, and I entirely concur with your comments. It even had a starting handle that I needed on occasion in bad weather in the wilds.
"with the expectation a human is always ready to take control"
The expectation that a human will be capable of taking control on demand effectively is fundamentally flawed. Reaction times from a state of inattention are drastically longer than from a state of attention, so there will be lots of occasions where there just won't be time to prevent an incident.
The partial inattention that leads to human drivers bumping into things is still a much more attentive state than that of an effective passenger suddenly asked to drive in an emergency. This is such a basic and proven fact it's amazing (and deeply worrying) that it has not yet sunk into the brains of the autonomaniacs.
an extra 55,000 yen for picking a non standard colour
they are having a laugh!!
‘helps mitigate driver fatigue and stress while driving in a traffic jam’
Or we could just try and, you know, mitigate the traffic jams?
Actually, no, forget that, I don’t know what came over me. I’ll have mine in Obsidian Blue Pearl, please.