Why Toyota Is Taking Its Own Road to Self-Driving Cars -- The Motley Fool

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has a brand-new self-driving test vehicle -- and it's designed to help the company develop two different approaches to advanced safety technology, simultaneously. Like most of its big global rivals, Toyota is aggressively pursuing full self-driving technology. But Toyota has also put a lot of work into a second research path, toward a driver-assist system that goes well beyond anything currently on the market. The new test vehicle was created by the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), a research facility based in Silicon Valley that Toyota opened early last year. It's based on a current-generation Lexus LS 600hL, a big hybrid luxury sedan.