Honda is getting serious about developing its own autonomous cars and next-gen driver assistance technologies. To do this, it’s teaming up with a Silicon Valley firm it’s used before, Helm.ai. This is an important step for the Japanese company as it strives to keep up with industry advancements in AVs.
California regulators want a fight with the federal government.
Like most other mainstream automakers, Honda has been turning increasingly to Silicon Valley for help with developing its own onboard technologies. Instead of just dipping its toe in the water, this time Honda is pushing aggressively to have its next-gen driver-assistance systems in production vehicles within the next two years, reports Bloomberg.
The two companies have signed a contract, although details and even the length of the agreement hasn’t been released by either party.
For now, what we know is Honda is looking to partially automate both steering and acceleration inputs for future production cars. In other words, it’s trying to catch up to Ford’s BlueCruise, GM’s Super Cruise, and Tesla’s Autopilot.
Maybe Honda can come up with a better name than what competitors have cooked up so far. One possibility is VTec Kicked In.
Of course, Honda is framing the move as an advancement in driving safety. As much as we hate it, the reality is far too many humans are awful drivers. You can blame cellphones, infotainment touchscreens, or whatever else, but the fact is many in today’s society place little value on being proficient at driving.
The result is automakers are pushing hard into the AV space to appeal to people’s laziness. While we personally love driving, we don’t love dodging people who can’t be bothered to pay attention or drive sober. In other words, technology like this might make it enjoyable for the rest of us to drive again.
Image via Honda
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