Honda R&D Americas, Inc. President, Frank Paluch, shared Honda’s vision for the next 50 years of human mobility and challenged the industry to think more broadly about its role in leading society toward a radically transformed mobility experience. Paluch’s remarks were delivered in a keynote speech that capped off three days of collaborative discussion among top engineers and thought leaders across the automotive industry at the 2015 SAE World Congress and Exhibition.
Paluch laid out Honda’s own challenging vision for mobility in 2050, which encompasses a range of solutions based on Honda’s long-term vision, asserting that “advancing mobility on all fronts is the key to the evolution of society.”
“With the advancement of learning, sensing and communication, in both cars and infrastructure, we will move into a new realm, a cooperative car society, in which the highly automated vehicle becomes a platform for the transformed mobility experience. In this scenario, the highly automated vehicle as a platform for transformed mobility experience is eminently achievable.”Frank Paluch, President, Honda R&D Americas
Honda’s vision for mobility in 2050 envisions a high-speed, low-carbon, zero-collision mobility experience made possible by the convergence of technology, including highly automated vehicle systems with vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity and advanced collision mitigation capabilities, leading to what Paluch calls a “Cooperative Car Society.” Key phases of Honda’s vision are:
By 2020: Humans, vehicles and infrastructure become connected in an omni-directional safety system that will reduce driver workload and enable a 50 percent reduction in accidents involving Honda vehicles.
Before 2030: Not only cars are connected, but all road users, including pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcycle riders.
By 2040: Honda-connected vehicles would be accident-free, which would pave the way for radical changes in the way people move and live.
By 2050: Cars converge into a network of intelligent, interconnected machines – a “Cooperative Car Society” – using their advanced sensing and relational capabilities to inform and educate the world around them.
Paluch also set forth Honda’s vision for a low-carbon future, involving the convergence of renewable energy and powertrain technologies, including fuel cell vehicles, working in conjunction with smart home energy systems and smart grid technology. Honda is already experimenting with such systems at its Honda Smart Home projects in Japan and California.