Toyota Advances Brake Assist with Navigation Link

Tokyo — TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that its Brake Assist, which helps apply proper braking power, can now—as a world’s first*1—coordinate with a vehicle’s navigation system.

TMC’s latest Brake Assist engages when a driver suddenly applies the brakes in response to stop-sign-proximity warnings provided by the navigation system through its display screen and aurally. The navigation system is able to provide the warnings by drawing on stop-sign information contained within its map data. The Brake Assist optimally adjusts the braking force based on both vehicle-position information (obtained using a rear-mounted camera) and the actual force with which the driver has applied the brakes. TMC hopes that this new technology, developed in conjunction with Aisin AW CO., Ltd., Zenrin Co., Ltd. and Toyota Mapmaster Incorporated, will help reduce collisions at intersections; it intends to offer it on vehicle models scheduled for launch in Japan in the near future.

The development of the navigation-linked Brake Assist follows TMC’s development in June 2007 of the world’s first system to employ car navigation-system map data to warn drivers both visually and aurally of stop signs ahead—a system TMC enhanced in September 2007 by adding an aural warning that is activated when the driver does not begin to decelerate upon nearing the stop line.

As a part of its efforts to realize sustainable mobility, TMC intends to strengthen its traffic safety initiatives in the future through: 1) the development of even safer vehicles and technologies based on TMC’s Integrated Safety Management Concept*2, 2) participation in the creation of a safe traffic environment and 3) activities designed to educate people in traffic safety, thereby contributing to the complete elimination of traffic casualties, which can be viewed as the ultimate hope of a society that values mobility.

*1. As of January 2008, according to TMC survey.
*2. TMC’s safety technology and vehicle development concept, aimed at realizing vehicles that do not cause accidents by combining safety technologies and systems to provide optimal driving support based on actual driving conditions