Car failures in the world’s oldest nation stimulate changes in carmakers

Photographer: Kyodo / AP Photo

Automakers in Japan, where nearly 30 percent of the population is 65 or older, are taking the lead in adapting cars so that national legions of elderly drivers can sense more confident – and safer – behind the wheel.

A series of accidents involving elderly people at the wheel has increased pressure from regulators to standardize advanced features. For example, automatic brakes will be needed for all new vehicles sold domestically this year, and companies at Toyota Motor Corp. the Nissan Motor Co. use smart technologies to make cars easier to use for the elderly.

It is also becoming more of a priority than public railways rural areas are disappearing, exacerbating an isolation crisis made only stronger by the coronavirus pandemic. With no means of transportation, the elderly in Japan are increasingly confined to their homes, their lives shrinking as transportation options evaporate.

A recent high-profile fatal accident highlighted the problem. In February last year, Japanese prosecutors Kozo Iizuka, 89, charged with negligence and death in Tokyo Ikebukuro District. The former senior bureaucrat was on his way to a French restaurant with his wife in April 2019, when Toyota Prius she showed through a crossing, killing a small child and her mother and harming others.

The accident appeared in the headlines, not least because of Iizuka’s high-ranking government position. Public sentiment quickly turned against Iizuka, who returned to court this week after pleading not guilty in October. The incident also sparked a national debate over the high level of elderly drivers on Japanese roads. After the event, the number of elderly people who choose to park their wheels permanently increased. In accordance with National Police Agency, 350,428 people over 75 years old returned their driving licenses in 2019, the highest recorded.

“Young people are telling older people to return their driving licenses, but they are not around,” said 90-year-old Hideaki Fukushima, whose wife returned her driving license at the time of the accident. The couple’s children live in Nagoya, a two-hour drive away. Into the Takamori where I live, a small town in the central mountainous area of ​​Japan, trains operated by Central Japan Railway Co. it only comes once an hour. “You can’t do anything without a car,” says Fukushima.

Last year, Toyota has updated its model Safety Sense offer. The technology is designed to prevent or mitigate frontal collisions, as well as to keep drivers on their lanes. By using high-resolution windshield and radar cameras mounted on the bumper, it can detect approaching cars or pedestrians – or even bicycles during the day – and provide audible and visual alerts. If drivers do not respond, automatic braking may be triggered. The new software also has intersection functionality to help detect approaching obstacles if a car makes a turn from a stationary position.

Other Toyota Safety Sense features include correcting unintentional lane departures, automatic switching between high beam and low beam at night depending on the surrounding traffic and detection of slower moving cars on the motorway and automatic maintenance of a preset distance. Roadside assistance technology detects stop and speed signs as they pass and displays an on-board alert if drivers have missed them themselves.

“A society in which older people can drive safely is crucial to their active social participation and a healthier and fuller life,” Toyota said. “Our ultimate goal is, of course, to have zero traffic accidents.”

The aspirations of Subaru Corp. are similar; wants to eliminate all fatal accidents by 2030. Like other carmakers, it uses stereo cameras, which have two or more lenses with a separate image sensor for each, offering the ability to capture three-dimensional images. Doubled EyeSight, technology looks ahead and warns drivers of any danger. Subaru says Eyesight vehicles are involved in 61% fewer accidents and 85% fewer rear-end accidents. Pedestrian injuries are reduced by 35%.

“It would be impossible to eradicate all fatal accidents without using artificial intelligence,” says Eiji Shibata, Subaru, who oversees EyeSight development. To achieve its ambitious goal, Subaru intends to combine its stereo cameras with AI, assigning meaning to each object and trying to accurately deduce the risk.

This is not without its challenges, according to Shibata. “It’s a technologically tough area,” he says. Stereo cameras are more difficult to install in mass-produced cars, in part because they transmit more information than other sensors and require more complicated back-end support. “Equipping the technology in cars that people usually use is a huge task.”