Every driver has heard the phrase, “I follow you.”

Toyota Motor North America now has a way to make it easier for one vehicle to lead another through traffic, by using sensors that maintain communication between the two vehicles.

The system could even work with vehicles from different manufacturers, according to Toyota officials.

Proving out concept

Lisa Maitre, senior engineering manager in the Integrated Vehicle Systems division of Toyota Motor North America R&D, helped show how the system works this week during a demonstration for a group of journalists and analysts at the American Mobility Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

During the demonstration, the lead vehicle “pulled” or “towed” a second minivan with only a safety driver around the course, literally, without any kind of a hitch or physical connection between the two vehicles. The lead vehicle set the speed, made the turns and did the braking during the trial runs.

“For the proof of concept, we used research grade sensors,” said Maitre. But for production, Toyota could use other kinds of hardware available now to communicate between the vehicles, Maitre, who says the idea for hitchless towing came from within the ranks of Toyota R&D and caught the attention of Toyota Management, moving it closer to production.

The prototype continues to span new “use cases” within the Toyota organization as the project has grown and expanded during the past year, noted Maitre, people have volunteered to join the hitchless trailer team.

Toyota’s researchers also hope to take the system out for tests in light traffic on regular roads within the next year, Maitre added.

Paul Fanson, senior manager in the Advanced Product Planning Office at Toyota Motor North America R&D, noted the TMNA encourages employees to come up with new ideas. “Innovation is part of the job description,” he noted. 

Hitchless towing is an idea Toyota’s management thought may appeal to North American customers.

Other companies have similar concepts

Fanson noted other companies, such as Volvo, talked about hitchless towing a few years ago and Airstream came up with interesting electric concept. The experimental eStream from Airstream has sensors in its hitch that tell the electric motors how much assistance to provide, so the trailer doesn’t provide any drag behind the tow vehicle. Just as importantly, the trailer automatically brakes itself.

Some of the experiments for hitchless towing seemed to flat as the excitement around automated vehicles ramped, Fanson noted. “Everyone thought we would be riding in AVs by now,” he said.

But with hitchless towing, a lead vehicle with a human driver, could pull other vehicles without drivers to a destination, he said. It could certainly make following a lead vehicle on vacation or to an unfamiliar destination much easier.

The hitchless towing concept could be extended to camping or boat trailers, but only if the trailers also were equipped with an independent power source and steering gear. 

But following another vehicle from one place to another automatically has great appeal, Toyota’s engineers and executives believe, and is worth pursuing. The technology might seem “a little out there,” but it is creating a stir across the company, according to Jack Hollis, Toyota Motor North America executive president of sales. 

Customers might not be clamoring for the technology, but Toyota is in a position, in the future, to deliver something they will find useful, Hollis noted. “We answer a question before it’s asked,” he said.