Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co spelled out for the first time its
plans to develop autonomous cars which can drive on city streets by
2025, building on its strategy to take on rivals in the auto market of
the future, Reuters reports.
Unveiling its mid-term Vision 2030 strategy plan, Honda said it would
boost coordination between R&D, procurement and manufacturing to
tame development costs as it acknowledged it must look beyond
conventional vehicles to survive in an industry which is moving rapidly
into electric and self-driving cars.
Honda has already spelled out plans to market a vehicle which can
drive itself on highways by 2020, and the new target for city-capable
self-driving cars puts its progress slightly behind rivals like BMW.
"We're going to place utmost priority on electrification and advanced
safety technologies going forward," Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo said.
Developing new driving technologies, robotics- and artificial
intelligence-driven services and new energy solutions also would be key
priorities for Honda in the years ahead, the company said.
Honda established a division late last year to develop electric
vehicles (EVs) as part of its long-held goal for lower-emission gasoline
hybrids, plug-in hybrids, EVs and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) to
account for two-thirds of its line-up by 2030, from about 5 percent
now.
According to Reuters, by 2025, Honda plans to come up with cars with
"level 4" standard automated driving functions, meaning they can drive
themselves on highways and city roads under most situations.
Achieving such capabilities will require artificial intelligence to
detect traffic movements, along with a battery of cameras and sensors to
help avoid accidents.
BMW has said it would launch a fully autonomous car by 2021, while
Ford Motor Co has said it will introduce a vehicle with similar
capabilities for ride-sharing purposes in the same year. Nissan Motor Co
is planning to launch a car which can drive automatically on city
streets by 2020.
Honda has been ramping up R&D spending, earmarking a record 750 billion yen ($6.84 billion) for the year to March.
(www.goldnews.com.cy)