Autonomous driving is becoming an area that OEMs and component companies are racing to chase. According to foreign media reports, Denso's latest self-driving system will be installed on Lexus models for the first time and will be put into production in 2020.
The autonomous driving system, called Automated Highway Teammate, reaches Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), which can realize automatic lane change and line alignment on highways. It is used in conjunction with an upgraded version of Lexus safety system technology. Denso supplies Lexus with radar, stereo cameras and electronic control units.
From the perspective of Denso, the L2 advanced advanced assisted driving technology is relatively optimistic in the near future. Hajime Kumabe, Denso Group's executive director of autonomous driving, said: "L3 autonomous driving is technically feasible in 2020, but the timing of its commercialization is uncertain. Because L3 autonomous driving faces great safety barriers and requires human driving Officers are always vigilant in order to take control measures in an emergency. "
Denso believes that L3 level autonomous driving technology is only a compromise solution. Some companies even want to cross L3 level autonomous driving and directly target L4 level autonomous driving. But in fact, L4-level autonomous driving also has its own difficulties. In addition to being out of the challenge of human driver control, a new energy management system is needed because its high-performance computing unit will consume a lot of electricity. This is actually the problem that electric vehicles will face in the future.
In this regard, the industry is studying several ways to reduce energy consumption: one is to use artificial intelligence to reduce computing load; the other is to integrate sensor functions to save power. Denso is also actively expanding in this field. In July this year, Denso announced that it and Toyota jointly set up a joint venture that specializes in the development of next-generation automotive semiconductor chips to better manage energy for self-driving cars.