Lexus Teammate Is the Future Of Self-Driving

Driver Assist

More and more automakers are rolling out hands-free driving assist features these days as we await the days when full autonomous driving is a reality. Now, Lexus is joining that fray with its new Teammate feature, another Level 2 driving assistant on par with Tesla's Autopilot, Ford's BlueCruise, and GM's SuperCruise.

Photos: Lexus

Advanced Features

Lexus Teammate is based on Toyota's Mobility Teammate Concept, which provides two functions - Advanced Drive and Advanced Park. Advanced Drive enables automatic steering, acceleration, and braking on the highway under the active supervision of the driver. It can also perform more complicated driving tasks, including maintaining a set distance between other vehicles, changing lanes, merging and passing, or overtaking other vehicles.

Photos: Lexus

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No Replacement

Advanced Drive is designed to reduce driver fatigue on long trips, but it certainly isn't a replacement for the human element. The technology also integrates with the vehicle's state-of-the-art navigation and localization system known as HD-Map and can plan actions for approximately six miles ahead to help reach the driver's desired destination.

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Safety First

Safety - a signature trait of Lexus vehicles - was at the forefront of Teammate's design. The system features a series of fail-safe operations designed to help prevent the loss of control for up to four seconds in the event of a system malfunction or limitation.

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Bevy of Sensors and Cameras

Advanced Drive gathers its data using sensors covering the 360-degree periphery of the vehicle, including driver monitoring cameras, LiDAR (front-facing only at launch), front-facing long-range radar, front- and rear-side short-range radar, surrounding parking cameras, a front-facing telescope, and locator cameras. The system has onboard deep learning functions that allow for high adaptability to various driving scenarios, with onboard processing driven by four main electronic control units that handle recognition, judgment, and operation.

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Hands-Free Parking

Meanwhile, Advanced Park is designed to help the driver park their vehicle, hands-free, by controlling steering, acceleration, braking, and gear changes while backing into a parking space or parallel parking. While it's being used, Advanced Park displays a bird's eye view of the vehicle to allow the driver to keep tabs on its surroundings.

Photos: Lexus

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Road to FSD

Lexus Teammate will be available on select 2022 Lexus LS 500h models with AWD, which are expected to arrive in U.S. dealerships this fall. And while it isn't quite a fully autonomous piece of tech yet, it's also an important step in the drive to get there.

Photos: Lexus

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