Toyota Vehicles with Toshiba’s Advanced Image Recognition Processor Win Japan’s Highest Preventive Safety Performance Awards for Second Year

June 12, 2020

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation

TOKYO—Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (“Toshiba”) today announced that, for the second consecutive year, its flagship image recognition processor for driver assistance systems has contributed to the success of Toyota Motor Corporation (“Toyota”) vehicles in the Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP).

In the 2019 edition of JNCAP, the government program that assesses the road safety of new vehicles, a Toyota Alphard/Vellfire fitted with a Visconti^™4 image recognition processor took the Grand Prix award for the second year in the row, with a score of 141 points. A Toyota Lexus UX and Lexus NX with Visconti^™4 driver assistance systems, both of which recorded 141 points in the 2019 first half JNCAP, were also awarded Grand Prix Awards.

JNCAP was initiated by the Japanese government in 1995 to promote the safety of new cars launched in Japan. It brings together the results of vehicle safety tests carried out by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and the National Agency for Automotive Safety and Victims' Aid (NASVA). Tests cover vehicle performance in respect of preventive safety, collision safety, and pedestrian protection. The Preventive Safety Performance Assessment evaluates advanced safety technologies, such as emergency braking.

In 2018, JNCAP introduced evaluation of damage mitigation braking for pedestrians on lit streets at night, and in 2019 made the test even more rigorous by extending it to cover unlit streets. This year, like last, Visconti^™4 was up to the challenge.

Toshiba supplies Visconti^™4 to Toyota vehicles as an integral part of DENSO Corporation’s Front-Camera-Based Active Safety System. The LSI’s ability to process luminance differences between objects and their backgrounds, realizing better detection of pedestrians at night and in low light conditions, helped the Toyota vehicles win high scores in the assessment.

Toshiba continues to channel resources into Visconti^™as a contribution to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The company has already started sample shipments of Visconti^™5, which delivers advanced Deep Neural Network IP, in September last year.