Meet P4, a high-tech self-driving car from Toyota

MANILA: Toyota, the Japanese automaker is working on a fully autonomous car. The P4 prototype is a highly modified version of Lexus LS500h made using the state-of-the-art self-driving system. The car is all set to be showcased at the upcoming CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Built and developed at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), the sedan is equipped with some high-tech features like the ‘Guardian’ and the 'Chauffeur' systems which aid the driver while running in fully-autonomous driving mode. The Chauffeur technology works in a totally autonomous way by disengaging the driver completely from driving the vehicle. Whereas the Guardian technology is designed to track the human presence behind the wheel without replacing human interference.

The P4 has two additional cameras unlike the typical Lexus LS, which will serve as an added safety feature with an extra pair of eyes. The car also gets an optimized radar system along with front and rear imaging sensors that monitor the surroundings of the vehicle in order to detect any objects or pedestrians.

Another good thing about P4 is that the computer is placed in the trunk. Moreover, according to Lexus, the system has a better computing power than the previous model, the P3 and can do more calculations at a given time. Now the system is being developed to be fast enough to react more quickly to any danger on the road in real-world scenarios.

Trunk space in the car has also been increased due to the compact size of the computer placed in the trunk. After the R&D of the P4 prototype at Toyota Motors North America's (TMNA), Toyota will start building it from the stock LX models available.