Honda Sensing Elite is a variation of Honda Sensing, a suite of advanced safety and driver-assistive technologies currently available on Honda vehicles around the world. The name “Elite” represents the outstanding and “elite” technologies included in this latest variation.
One of the “elite” technologies
featured is the “Traffic Jam Pilot” function, an advanced technology
qualifying for Level 3 automated driving (conditional automated driving
in limited area), for which Honda has received type designation from the
Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
(MLIT). Traffic Jam Pilot technology enables the automated driving
system to drive the vehicle, instead of the driver, under certain
conditions such as when the vehicle is in congested traffic on an
expressway.
For vehicle control, the system determines the
position of the vehicle and road conditions using data from
3-dimensional high-definition maps and the global navigation satellite
system (GNSS), while detecting the vehicle’s surroundings using several
external sensors that provide 360-degree input. At the same time, the
system tracks the condition of the driver using a monitoring camera
mounted inside the vehicle. Based on this wide range of information, the
main electronic control unit (ECU) recognizes current conditions,
anticipates future conditions and applies a high-level of control to
acceleration, braking and steering inputs to assist the driver and
achieve high-quality and smooth driving.
Placing the highest
priority on safety and reliability, approximately 10 million patterns of
possible real-world situations were simulated during system
development, and real-world demonstration tests were conducted on
expressways for a total of approximately 1.3 million km (800,000 miles).
Moreover, the system incorporates a redundant system design to ensure
safety and reliability in the event of a problem with any of the
devices.
With exterior styling befitting a flagship sedan, the
automated driving sensors are subtly integrated into the body panels,
producing a clean design while discreetly highlighting the vehicle’s
automated driving capability.
Interior equipment exclusive to
this model includes Honda Sensing Elite indicator lights, which feature
carefully selected and visible positions, sizes, colors, brightness and
other details, as well as a 12.3-inch full-LCD graphic meter. This
equipment was adopted to provide an intuitive understanding of system
operation status, current driving situation and any requests to transfer
control back to the driver.
