Honda Debuts Next-Gen Automated Technology

Honda reveals the second generation of its automated-vehicle technology in the Acura RLX hybrid sedan.

The car is fitted with new radar, Lidar, GPS sensors, higher-performance central processing and graphics-processing units and more intelligent software algorithms, plus cabling, heat management and circuitry that is beyond what was on a previous RLX with Honda’s first-gen automated technology.

“The development vehicle is designed to achieve high reliability by fusing overlapping information together from various sensors (in a concept) known as sensor fusion,” Honda North America says in a release. “Test engineers (can) validate information from each signal with a higher degree of accuracy than can be obtained from any one of the sensors independently.”

Honda Research Institute USA will be testing the vehicle at the GoMentum Station, a former naval station in Concord, CA, near San Francisco, with 20 miles (32 km) of paved roads that simulates an urban driving environment. The automaker, like many working on automated and connected-vehicle technologies, has an introduction goal of 2020 for the application of automated-driving technology in production models.

When WardsAuto tested Honda’s first-generation automated driving tech in September 2014, the RLX could fully steer, brake and accelerate itself along a highway route, but became confused in a construction zone with heavy traffic, prompting the driver to take over.

Urban environments also were problematic, with a Honda official noting more-advanced sensors and better control algorithms were necessary to combat the “unpredictable, erratic behavior” of drivers and pedestrians in urban environments.

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