The Toyota Supra becomes an autonomous vehicle capable of drifting

It doesn’t take much looking back to realize the incredible safety that today’s vehicles provide, largely thanks to the major advances made in safety and driver assistance, what we know as ADAS systems. These systems are under continuous research and development, all with the aim of reducing accidents as much as possible and, should one occur, minimizing its consequences.

This research also brings us ever closer to the autonomous vehicle. In fact, today there are already many vehicles equipped with a system that takes control to avoid risky situations and, over the years, we will probably reach a point where we simply sit back and enjoy a peaceful journey without worrying about anything, while the vehicle itself takes care of getting us to our destination.

But while brands work hard to reach that point, which may not be as far off as we think if we consider the latest video published by Toyota. The Japanese brand presents us with a Supra that has every single modification made to the cars competing in Formula Drift, but which, unlike those cars, is capable of sliding on its own while avoiding the obstacles placed on the track. At first glance it may seem like a promotional exercise, which it also is, but behind it lies a very interesting technology, as Toyota explains to us.

At the TRI (Toyota Research Institute), they are working on the most interesting and seemingly impossible research projects you could imagine, including this one with the Toyota Supra, which beneath all that sporty styling houses a technology called nonlinear model predictive control, which makes it possible to drive the vehicle beyond the limit any normal driver reaches in everyday life. In this way, the Supra you see is able to automatically control the steering, the throttle, the clutch itself, the sequential transmission and the brakes.

The goal is not to replace the driver but to assist them. This means that when the vehicle faces a situation in which the driver could lose control, the system kicks in, takes control of the vehicle and, like a racing driver, saves us from a more than probable accident. Toyota has worked hand in hand with GReddy and the drift driver Ken Gushi, transferring all this knowledge to the software that controls the Supra and performs manoeuvres like those you can see in the video below.

https://youtu.be/MfU5_gzqPaM