The Honda Motor Company has received approval from Japanese regulators to sell Level 3 automated vehicles.
This means a vehicle fitted with the right technology will be allowed to drive instead of a human under certain conditions, such as when the vehicle is in congested traffic.
Honda says it is planning to launch sales of a Honda Legend equipped with the newly approved automated driving equipment, which it is calling “Traffic Jam Pilot” before the end of March next year.
It says to promote commercialisation of Level 3 automated vehicles, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism partially amended the country’s Road Vehicle Act, adding equipment for Level 3 automated driving to the list of motor vehicle equipment subject to the safety standards.
The system must reach certain standards to do with compromising safety, transfer back to the driver, driver monitoring and cyber security measures. It must also record data to confirm operating conditions of the automated driving equipment for a six-month period and display a sticker indicating it is an automated vehicle.
