Toyota Motors Develops New Collision Avoidance Assist System

System Effective in More Than 90% of Speed Ranges in Rear-end Collisions

Toyota City, Japan— You are on your commute home from work when you suddenly rear end a driver. In the words of Homer Simpson, Doh!

Research has shown that speeds between 40 km/h to 60 km/h during the time of a rear-end collision is the range in which most fatal and injury-causing accidents increase. In response to this, Two days ago, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced it had developed a Pre-collision System (PCS) with collision avoidance assist that is effective in helping mitigate even high-speed collisions.

The newly developed PCS uses a millimeter-wave radar to detect the risk of a rear-end collision with a vehicle ahead of you. The system works by sending a system warning to the driver via sound and display alerts advising the driver to brake when such a risk is detected.  When the driver applies the brakes, PCS enables deceleration of up to 60 km/h by increasing the vehicle’s braking force up to twice the force of what an  that of the average driver. 

One cool feature to this PCS system is that even If the brakes are not applied, automatic deceleration is possible at speed of 15 km/h to approximately 30 km/h.

Toyota’s research found that more than 90 percent of rear-end collisions occur when the difference in speed between the preceding and following vehicle is within 60 km/h, thus aiming to produce a brake assist system based on real-world collision data. Toyota’s new PCS will be able to achieve rear-end-collision reducing-effects at the highest level in the industry. 

On top of releasing this PCS system and in order to help eliminate fatal traffic accidents, Toyota Motors is also conducting research and development on individual onboard safety devices and systems based on its Integrated Safety Management Concept.

Toyota’s Integrated Safety Management Concept is TMC’s approach to safety that links each individual safety technology system equipped on vehicles together to increase overall vehicle safety.  Toyota Motors has been hard at work developing safer vehicles and technologies, as well as increasing its traffic-safety initiatives by participating in the development of traffic environments and participating in educational traffic-safety activities for drivers.

The new PCS was developed to be used in a wide variety of models, and is expected to be rolled out starting with soon-to-be-launched 2013 models.

Like what you read? Then follow us on twitter at @jerrystoyota and @JerrysItsAboutU for updates on all of our blogs, videos and vehicle comparisons.

Want more Toyota? like us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/jerrystoyota