Honda’s Augmented Driving Concept Puts You In Control Of Autonomous Vehicles

Honda Xcelerator, the brand’s open innovation program, recently previewed four devices and technologies for CES, and now Honda is following suit by revealing plans to showcase new ideas of their own.

The company’s first innovation is dubbed the Augmented Driving concept and it’s designed to address the transition to autonomous vehicles. As the company explained, they believe customers will enjoy being freed from the task of driving but know some people will still want to drive themselves.

In order to accommodate both groups, the Augmented Driving concept can seamlessly transition from autonomous to semi-autonomous operation. The process is relatively straightforward as users hit a switch to go into manual mode. However, Honda says there are more than eight modes between fully autonomous and semi-autonomous operation and sensors inside the vehicle “continuously read the user’s intention to smoothly shift between these modes, creating an instinctive driving experience.”

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The Augmented Driving concept also has a unique steering wheel that allows people to control the vehicle in new ways. As the company explained, the vehicle can be started by simply patting the steering wheel twice. Users will also be able to pull the steering wheel to slow down, and push it to speed up.

ESMO electric scooter coming to Las Vegas too

Honda will also stage the US debut of the ESMO electric scooter and showcase a mobile power pack. The latter is a portable, rechargeable battery with a capacity of at least 1 kWh. When multiple batteries are used together, they can power electric motorcycles, mobility products and even homes. However, they’re more geared towards the former products as the batteries are swappable and could allow electric motorcycles to get a full charge by replacing the batteries.

The V2X Safety System

Last but not least, Honda will showcase their Smart Intersection safety system and the latest developments regarding their Safe Swarm technology. Using V2X communications technology, the Safe Swarm system allows vehicles to share their location and speed with one another. This information is then used to determine the safest course of action to prevent collisions and reduce traffic congestion. Honda has been working on the technology for awhile and at CES they will show the progress they’ve made in developing merge assist and lane optimization technologies.

Smart Intersection technology also uses V2X communications technology, but goes even further as it utilizes intersection-mounted cameras equipped with Honda’s object recognition software. This allows cars to see hazards that could otherwise be hidden by buildings or walls. The technology has the potential to save thousands of lives as Honda noted traffic collisions at intersections are responsible for 20 percent of the nearly 35,000 traffic-related deaths in the United States every year.