Lexus’ latest innovation in its pursuit of perfection isn’t a new vehicle. It’s an idea…the idea that a car that will never have an accident may be possible. The automaker is using the world’s most advanced driving simulator to enable its engineers to design technology that will help make driving safer.
In a large, unassuming building on the company’s research campus in Higashifuji, Japan, sits the largest and most advanced driving simulator ever built. A series of complex, interlocking full motion tracks span the interior of a room the size of a football field. On top of the tracks sits a round domed structure, approximately 15 feet high and 56 feet in diameter, supported on a full three-axis hexapod system.
Inside the dome, a real Lexus vehicle is mounted to a turntable, allowing drivers to test and experience actual vehicle controls. A high-definition imaging system provides a full 360-degree environment of roads around the vehicle. Drivers can see and hear traffic and the city around them, including receding scenery viewable in the side- and rear-view mirrors.
This is no video game. The pod is able to tip forward or backward and side-to-side to create sensations of acceleration. Coupled with the track system, which moves the pod in all directions, the simulator creates realistic feelings of cornering and handling, and can mimic speeds of up to 186 miles per hour with a turn angle of 330 degrees.
This highly advanced simulator allows Lexus to conduct ongoing testing to learn about driver behaviors and reaction times, to engineer active safety features that will help protect people on the road like never before.