Announced at a safety seminar in Toyota City, the new Toyota technologies will be joined by Safety Sense active safety packages, tailored to suit different size vehicles that will be made available worldwide by the end of 2017. While a separate active safety package, Lexus Safety System+, will be marketed for Lexus models.

The technology includes vehicle-infrastructure and vehicle-vehicle communications, using a wireless frequency reserved for ITS – Integrated Traffic System – services, that will help deal with blind spots at junctions to detect vehicles or pedestrians.

Toyota has also developed a new Communicating Radar Cruise Control that uses vehicle-to-vehicle communication to significantly improve tracking performance in traffic, being safer and more fuel-efficient, and helping avoid one of the common causes of congestion.

Meanwhile the LED Array Adaptive High Beam
will deliver even better night-time illumination. This system uses multiple, independently controlled LEDs arranged in a single row, giving wider illumination without dazzling drivers of on-coming or preceding vehicles.

And from 2015, Toyota will launch a new set of active safety technologies design to help prevent or mitigate collisions across a wide range of vehicle speeds. They will be offered in two Toyota Safety Sense packages, initially in Japan and subsequently in the USA and Europe, by the end of 2017.

The two packages – designated C and P for mid-size and larger vehicles respectively – bring together several of Toyota’s existing active safety technologies, including the Pre-Crash Safety system, Lane Keep Assist and automatic high beam. The C package uses a laser radar and the P package a millimetre-wave radar, each combined with a camera to secure high performance and reliability.

A separate active safety package, Lexus Safety System+, will be marketed for Lexus models, including a new Road Sign Assist function. This recognises speed limits and road signs when travelling overseas, presenting the information on the driver’s instrument display.