Many car enthusiasts fear the day when the car will be completely autonomous, because then there will be no longer anything like driving pleasure. The boys and girls at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) in California apparently think otherwise, because they let an autonomous Supra drift around in circles.
The above is of course questionable, because in the end it is mainly the Supra itself that enjoys the drifting session. The occupant is only a passenger, who should not be prone to motion sickness. Everything in the Supra is automatic, from steering, throttle and brakes to the operation of the sequential race gearbox.
Toyota wouldn’t be Toyota if it weren’t for a practical purpose of this joke, so the business is sold with the text “can we prevent accidents, even under the most extreme conditions?”. That wasn’t the first thing we thought of when we saw a heavily stickered and spoilered Supra sliding around the track in a cloud of smoke, but there’s no doubt there are some lessons to be learned for the developers. After all, it is true that car accidents often happen in gripless conditions. Even then, an autonomous car must know what to do with the steering wheel and throttle, but not everyone drives a rear-wheel drive super-Supra.
Above all, the TRI’s masterpiece fortunately produces entertaining images. You can see those images here:
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl