Autonomous driving technology: Japanese and western OEM approaches

Audi A8 announces Level 3 autonomous vehicle

2018/01/16

Summary
Plans for the release and deployment of autonomous vehicles
Autonomous driving approaches of major automakers
Approaches to autonomous driving technology for production vehicles: Audi A8 to feature Level 3 autonomous driving capability
Concept cars: Toyota Concept-i, Audi Elaine and Aicon to support autonomous driving at Levels 4 or 5
Development vehicles for autonomous driving technology

Summary

Audi A8, first production car to offer level 3 autonomous driving capabilities (Source: Audi)

In July 2017, Audi announced the release of its new A8, the world's first production automobile with Level 3 (Conditional Automation) autonomous driving capability (at highway speeds of 60 km/h or less).

OEMs are unveiling concept cars featuring autonomous driving technology at motor shows with the goal of introducing such vehicles into the market. However, because releasing a fully automated vehicle to the market may be considered unrealistic from a technological and market acceptance perspective, automakers are planning to release autonomous vehicles sequentially at the various levels of automation.

This report covers the autonomous driving technologies featured on production and concept vehicles, as well as future technological trends characterizing each OEM. This report was written based on technical press releases by Japanese and western automakers, as well as previous MarkLines reports.