Toyota Presents New Self-Driving Car Design

Toyota Research Institute, based in Silicon Valley, revealed their latest generation of self-driving test vehicles. The so-called Platform 3.0, based on a Lexus LS 600hL, features a much cleaner integration of the sensors into the car’s body. The car houses multiple LIDAR, radar, and camera arrays.

The LIDAR is manufactured by Portola Valley-based startup Luminar, and allows to see 200 meters in a 360 degree range. Velodyne, also based in Silicon Valley, comes with its highend LIDAR HDL-64E to a range of 120 meters, and with its VLP-16 Puck 100 meters. Only Waymo has a larger range with its own in-house developed LIDARs, that were able at the beginning of 2017 of reaching 220 meters.

Toyota Research Institute worked with CALTY Design Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and engineers at Toyota Motor North America Research and Development on the new design.

This article has also been published in German.