DroneLife caught up with Marcus Frommer a spokeperson from Honda at CES and talked about the very handsome little roadster that you see pictured.

We were discussing Honda’s approach to autonomous cars including a level 5 concept car that they brought to CES.  One difference from the other concept cars shown here is that the Honda vehicle includes a steering wheel.    Some cars, including those by GM and Mercedes Benz have displayed concept level 5 cars without steering wheels.

Mr. Frommer tells DroneLife,  “We want to preserve the steering wheel.  We still feel that driving is fun.  But maybe not while you are sitting in traffic.  Our level 5 with assisted driving as an option gives drives the option of using the steering wheel or allowing the car to drive itself” .. “The founder of Honda loved racing everything cars, motorcycles and we think that leaving the option gives people the choice.”

We had a chance to take a virtual reality simulation while sitting sit in the car.  From the drivers seat the button in the middle of the steering wheel is like the brain of the car,  it displays a blue dot than the car is driving itself and reacts to your hands on the wheel if you are driving it using the wheel.   As you grab the wheel the hub changes to a speedometer and you are in control although aided greatly by the car.

There is a huge amount of driver assist.  For example, even when driving it would not let you turn off the road into a tree, it would self-brake if there was something in your way,  or if another car got in your way.

 

 

 

 

Here is a video of the car.