Honda Autonomous Driving is the First Level-3 System from US Manufacturer

Watch out Tesla – Honda has announced their latest innovation in autonomous driving with “Sensing 360.” Honda plans to roll out this technology suite globally in 2024. Honda autonomous driving will feature assisted driving features like “Autonomous emergency braking with expanded cross-traffic, pedestrian detection capabilities, front cross-traffic alert, active lane-change assist (blind-spot monitoring), [and] lane-change collision mitigation (blind-spot assist).”

Honda autonomous driving, “Sensing 360” is meant to be a level-3 self-driving vehicle making it the only US brand past level-2. A level-3 system means it is fully auto-pilot and the driver will only need to operate when they choose to.

While other transportation giants like Ford, GM, and Mercedes offer similar technologies, it is important to remember that none of these platforms offer a truly autonomous driving experience. According to Vitaly Golomb, Partner at Drake Star Partners, these companies will continue to roll out incremental improvements, but fully autonomous driving remains decades away.

Vitaly’s Thoughts

“Honda is the latest company to announce plans for advanced driving assist. Though Tesla is known for promising full self driving for the last nine years and recently opening up its beta system publicly, legally it is still classified as a level 2 system with all responsibility firmly in the driver’s hands. Rivian, Mercedes, Ford, GM, and others already offer advanced assistive systems today that will auto steer, keep up with traffic, and in limited cases already change lanes.

In practice, we will see continued incremental improvements in these assistive systems with increasingly more automated functionality over the rest of the decade. The first fully autonomous system also exist, but they are in controlled, off road environments. On roads, we see dedicated applications like Cruise, Waymo, and Zoox coming well before true door to door autonomy in privately owned vehicles.”