VIDEO: Toyota lays down gauntlet on self-drive cars

Toyota has unveiled its vision for self-driving cars in a challenge to other carmakers as well as industry newcomer Google, promising to start selling such vehicles in Japan by 2020.

Toyota demonstrated on a Tokyo motorway what it called the “mobility team-mate concept”, meaning the driver and the artificial intelligence in a sensor-packed car work as a team.

In the demonstration, a Lexus drove itself within the 60kph (37mph) speed limit for about 10 minutes, changing lanes, braking and steering. The human at the wheel did nothing except turn on a button to kick in the technology.