Last month, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) showcased its new Accelerated Concepts program in active safety for the international media. TRI’s Human Interactive Driving (HID) team aims their research not at self-driving robotaxis but rather at active safety, incorporating both high autonomy and high driver engagement. This approach makes driving both safer and more fun – keeping the driver engaged and working with the car as a truly intelligent partner.

TRI also unveiled its Driving Sensei concept, which uses AI to help drivers gain mastery over the skills of driving through a combination of AI-driven instruction and AI-powered driver support. Driving Sensei helps people become better, safer drivers while ensuring they are engaged in the driving task.

Each research vehicle and simulator demonstrated different technologies developed under the HID team’s research pillars: 1) Human-Focused Learning, 2) Driver/Vehicle Performance and Safety, and 3) Shared Autonomy.

• Human-Focused Learning uses data-driven machine-learning techniques to create models of human behavior. From driver awareness to action and intent, these models ensure that the technology will understand drivers and support them in the most natural way possible.

• With Driver/Vehicle Performance and Safety, the team seeks to build expert-level driving skills with AI. Teaching expert driving skills to AI helps lay the foundation for autonomous technology to help drivers avoid accidents by navigating sudden obstacles or hazardous road conditions such as black ice.

• The final component is Shared Autonomy, where AI and drivers work together for a safer and more enjoyable driving experience. Participants had time behind the wheel to test TRI’s custom-built Global Research Innovation Platform (GRIP), a research vehicle with four-wheel steering and in-wheel electric motors used to iterate driving research rapidly. GRIP’s in-car dynamics emulation enables new scenarios for driver training within a controlled environment.