Honda delivers details on progress of software-defined vehicle development

Honda reports it’s working toward personalized software-defined vehicle (SDV) offerings via its Asimo OS to hit the global market next year.

The operating system is “fundamental software designed to control the vehicle’s onboard computers and, by extension, the entire vehicle” in automated driving and advanced driver assistance systems (AD/ADAS), which will be updated over-the-air, Honda wrote in a post on its technology website.

Honda plans to install Asimo on Honda 0 Series models, Honda’s new electric vehicle lineup.

Asimo was a humanoid robot developed by Honda and introduced to the public in 2000. Honda named its newest operating system after the robot “with a determination to strive for making the Honda 0 Series an icon of next-generation EVs, which will surprise and inspire people all around the world, just as ASIMO did.”

Honda SDVs will also include advancements of Asimo’s recognition of external environments and autonomous behavior control technologies that enabled it to act while understanding the intentions of people around it. Doing so will combine robotics technologies with advanced AI technologies.

The automaker compared its vision of SDVs with the Asimo OS to that of unique aspects of each person’s smartphone while becoming increasingly user-friendly through repeated use.

Honda wrote that AD/ADAS is the area in which it’s putting the most effort to develop SDVs. In the field of ADAS, Honda has been advancing the functions and performance of Honda SENSING and is expanding the application of Honda SENSING 360.

“Based on these fundamental technologies and know-how, Honda is pursuing AD powered by AI that accurately recognizes and understands the vehicle’s surroundings and enables the system to behave like an experienced driver in a wide range of traffic environments and situations,” Honda wrote.

For example, acceleration/deceleration, steering speed, and other driving behaviors vary depending on the driver. Honda aims for future AD/ADAS on its SDVs to learn drivers’ tendencies and respond accordingly.

“(T)he more the user drives their Honda SDV, the better the vehicle understands the driver’s characteristics, skill level, and preferences,” Honda wrote. “This will enable the vehicle to suggest a drive mode that best accommodates the driver’s preference depending on the driving situation, and also offer an appropriate drive mode for the situation by estimating the road surface conditions based on information on the environment obtained from outside the vehicle from various on-board sensors such as cameras.”

By 2030, Honda expects AI performance requirements for SDVs to be 500 times higher, so it’s already working with Renesas Electronics Corp. on a system-on-chip (SoC) capable of processing enormous amounts of data required for the central engine control unit (ECU) of the future.

Honda says it also aims to become the world’s first automaker to enable Level 3 automated driving in all driving situations, including on regular, non-expressway roads.

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All images provided by Honda

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