Honda confirms driverless cars by 2020

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Honda has put a time stamp on the dawn of the driverless car.

The Japanese brand is the latest car maker to commit to rolling out automated driving systems, confirming it will introduce an autopilot function for highway operation by 2020.

The system will be limited to Japan at the outset, following a public trial on the busy Shuto Expressway in Tokyo next year, but Honda says it will eventually be expanded to other regions – most likely North America and Europe - afterwards.

The local arm of the Japanese car maker has expressed interest in adopting driverless technology in the future and has even been approached by the South Australian government to take part in its autonomous driving trials. But it has yet to confirm when it will able to adopt it as there are still too many unknowns in place – from government regulation, public liability and any additional infrastructure needed to ensure it works effectively.

"We're always looking at future technologies like this, and it is a case of when it happens rather than if [it happens]," said Honda Australia director, Stephen Collins.

"It's going to happen, but there's still a lot of discussions to be had for it to be available in Australia."

Honda says driverless cars of the future will play a major role in achieving its 'dream' of a collision-free society, but – unlike Volvo, which has the ambitious goal of claiming none of its cars will be involved in a crash from 2020 – Honda's senior safety engineers were reluctant to put a timeframe on when that could be possible.

"It is our dream, but actually zero [crashes] is a very challenging issue," said Yuichi Sugimoto, Honda's manager in charge of automated driving technology, through an interpreter during a demonstration at the company's Tochigi proving ground.

"There are many uncontrolled situations; it is very hard to predict pedestrians at night time and hiding behind obstacles [for example] and the cars will have to mix with other vehicles that are not automated for some time still.

"I can't give a figure on when that dream will be a reality."

Honda has indicated that its driverless technology will be offered on a wide range of its vehicles, from city-sized hatchbacks through to its flagship Legend sedan, claiming the technology will offer a wide range of benefits to drivers of different skill levels.

It says it can assist those less experienced drivers by providing a greater electronic safety net while at the other end of the spectrum it can help enthusiasts extract the best performance from their vehicle by guiding them through the bends properly. In any situation, Honda says automated driving is another building block in improving fuel consumption as the car will drive at the optimum speed for the conditions.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks in the path of automated technologies is, according to Sagimoto, the uncertainty over global standards for cars that communicate with each other as well as infrastructure such as traffic lights.

"Honda has been very active in demanding a global standard for telecommunications with vehicles, but a major challenge facing us is the regulations are being put together within nations," he said.

"It will be difficult to break free of this regional standardisation to generate a global standard. We need this to work together for the global community."