CES 2019: Toyota plans to share life-saving driving technology with rivals

The Toyota Research Institute Inc. (TRI) P4 semi-autonomous prototype based on the current Lexus LS500h sedan sits on display during the Toyota Motor Corp. press conference at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. Dozens of companies will give presentations at the event, where attendance is expected to top 180,000, with the trade war between the U.S. and China as well as Apple's sales woes looming over the gathering. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Toyota Motor Corp – in an unusual move for the cut-throat car business – has decided to share with rivals an automated safety system that uses self-driving technology to keep cars from crashing. 

Known as the Guardian System, the technology will take control of a car and steer it around an impending crash or accelerate out of the path of an oncoming vehicle that is running a red light. The system, due to hit the road early next decade, has the potential to save so many lives that Toyota felt compelled to share it with any company that would like to use it, Gill Pratt, head of the automaker’s Research Institute, said at CES in Las Vegas on Jan 7.