Honda Legend Is The First Level-3 Autonomous Car

On March 2, 2021, Honda, Japan’s second automaker, unveiled a partially self-driving Legend Sedan in Japan stating that it’s the world’s first certified level 3 autonomous car. There’ll be a limited amount of 100 examples sold for $12,000.

The automation technology isn’t yet fully embraced by the car fans, but a necessary step towards eliminating human error-induced accidents. The Level 3 autonomous sedan features the “Traffic Jam Pilot,” which literally controls accelerations, brakes, and steering under certain conditions.

The activated system allows the driver to mitigate fatigue and stress when driving in a traffic jam. He can watch a movie or, use the navigation on the screen to relax. The Legend's system will immediately alert the driver when he wants to hand over the car’s control inserted as a vibration in the seatbelt.

Thinking of the chance the driver wouldn’t respond, the system will perform an emergency stop, decelerating and stopping the vehicle meanwhile alerting other vehicles in the traffic with hazards lights and the horn. If you wondered, the “Traffic Jam Pilot” is awarded the Japanese Safety Certification in November 2020.

Despite the fact that the system is already developed by global automakers such as Waymo and Tesla with heavy investments, its regulations differ from country to country. There’s still the situation that occurred with Audi in 2017 when its A8 3 level autonomous sedan was prevented from being widely introduced by the regulatory hurdles.