Toyota shows off self-driving cars as technology strides forward

Touch a button on the steering wheel and put your hands up — this Toyota will take it from here.

That’s the gist of the experience Toyota offered to reporters on Tuesday in Tokyo. Its “highway teammate” concept car, a modified Lexus GS saloon, pulled off automated feats including entering public expressways, switching lanes and steering to the off ramp, all while picking spots to speed up or slow down based on the surrounding traffic.

The demonstration illustrates how far Toyota has come in developing technology that essentially turns cars into co-pilots that boost the driver’s skills. While executives have in the past said they wanted to keep a driver fully engaged, the Japanese automaker is now in the same camp as companies like Google in developing its technology all the way to cars going fully driverless, according to Moritaka Yoshida, Toyota’s chief safety technology officer.