TOYOTA

Sports model Supra makes driverless drift behind the wheel

When thinking about autonomous driving, the most logical thing is to think about 'anti-driving', because once it is fully developed, the driver will forget how to drive and let the car do it on its own. However, it still takes some time for this moment to arrive and, for now, brands use these advances to help the driver. Toyota goes a step further and has managed to use one of the disciplines preferred by the Japanese to advance in this field: its autonomous Toyota Supra is capable of drifting.

The proposal may seem peculiar, but it makes sense. Although drifting is seen as something to have fun behind the wheel, the truth is that it implies considerable skill behind the wheel, which can be very useful when avoiding obstacles and dangers.

Of course, not everyone has this level of driving, which is why the staff of the Toyota Research Institute considers that it is possible to apply it using technology to assist normal drivers when they find themselves in danger due to loss of traction resulting from an excessively wet road surface. , snow or ice.

Avinash Balachandran, Senior Manager, Human Centric Driving Research at the Toyota Research Institute, explains: “At TRI our goal is to use advanced technologies that augment and amplify humans, not replace them. Through this project, we are expanding the region where you can control a car, with the aim of giving regular drivers the instinctive reflexes of a professional racing driver to be able to handle the most challenging emergencies and keep people safer on the road.”

For his part, Jonathan Goh, research scientist at TRI, explains that “when faced with wet or slippery roads, professional drivers may choose to 'skid' the car in a curve, but most of us do not. That's why TRI is programming vehicles that can identify obstacles and autonomously navigate around them on a closed track.”

Autonews