Daihatsu has updated the Smart Assist driver assistance package on the Move and Move Canbus kei cars, adding cyclist detection and detection of oncoming vehicles and crossing pedestrians during turns. The Daihatsu Smart Assist update launched nationwide in Japan on 29 July, on a range starting at JP¥1.37m (US$8,350).

The threshold change matters as much as the new functions. Maximum speed for pedestrian detection rises from 60km/h to 80km/h, moving the system from an urban safeguard to something that works at suburban and rural road speeds.

Turn-scenario detection is the harder engineering problem. Identifying an oncoming vehicle while turning across traffic, or a pedestrian crossing from the opposite direction, needs sensor coverage and processing that sat in premium segments only a few years ago.

Adaptive cruise control and lane keeping have also been reworked, with longer and more accurate detection of the vehicle ahead and less wandering during lane keep operation. Both changes address the behaviour that stops drivers using such systems at all.

The economics are the story. Kei cars are Japan’s cheapest new vehicles and sell in volume, so equipment reaching this segment has effectively become standard across the market, driven more by assessment protocols than by buyer demand.

Source: Daihatsu