They also expect two thirds of their cars to be electric by 2030
Honda has revealed its plans to develop self-driving cars with the ability to drive in towns and on city streets by the year 2025.
The Japanese carmakers announced their Vision 2030 strategy plan, saying they are to increase co-ordination between R&D, procurement and manufacturing to ensure the manageability of costs, as it comes to terms with the fact that they need to look to the future regarding electric and self-driving vehicles.
The car industry is moving faster than anticipated towards electric and autonomous vehicles and Honda know they need to keep up with their rivals as the car market changes.
Honda reveal plans to have fully self-driving cars by 2025 © Copyright Andrew Wilson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
The company have announced plans to produce and bring to market a vehicle that self-drives on major roads by 2020. Although their new target for having a self-driving vehicle ready for city driving puts their progress somewhat behind the competition, such as BMW.
Takahiro Hachigo, CEO of Honda said: “We’re going to place utmost priority on electrification and advanced safety technologies going forward.”
The car making company have also announced that focus will be placed on developing new driving technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence-driven services and brand new energy solutions going forward.
Honda created a special division at the end of 2016 to develop EVs, which has been part of their goal to produce lower-emission gasoline hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), EVs and plug-in hybrids – this will account for two-thirds of their full car production by 2030 which at the moment stands at just 5%.
The Japanese carmakers intend to produce cars by 2025 to an automation ‘level 4’, meaning cars can drive themselves on city roads and highways automatically but may not be able to cope with certain weather and road conditions and will rely on high definition mapping.
To achieve such capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI) must be able to detect the movement of traffic, plus sensors and cameras will play their role in helping to avoid accidents.
The company have boosted their R&D spending, designating a massive 750 billion yen, ($6.84 billion) for the year and up until March.
A report released by Goldman Sachs Economics Research in May suggests that Honda’s 2030 goal seems to be in line with their findings relating to autonomous vehicles and their future.
“Our colleagues expect the market shares of semi and fully autonomous cars sales to exceed 20% around 2025 and 2030 respectively, as social acceptance and regulation are likely to remain substantial barriers to adoption for a while.” said the report.
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