Product Development
Product Development Supporting
Safety and Comfort
Messages from the development staff
Planning products from the "customers' point of view"
Product Planning Department
Hiroyuki Sato
We in the Product Planning Department are making sure that customers' voices are fed back to the development process.
Car navigation systems are expected to be "utility goods" and, as such, should not lessen any usability for customers, i.e., drivers. We should explore new functions such as connection with iPods®, DVD players, and terrestrial digital broadcasting only when the product meets its fundamental requirement of "thinking from the customers' point of view."
Going forward, I believe that car navigation systems will make their presence felt in our lifestyles, well beyond their current role in the car, as they connect to various kinds of digital equipment in the home. Since they are expected to evolve as a machine for an even broader user group, I hope that we can plan high-valueadded lines from the customers' point of view.
Striking a balance between advanced
functions and ease of operation
After-Market Product Development Department
Jun Katayose
I have to say that, until recently, we were competing fiercely for newer and better functions in our car navigation systems. What is considered more important now, however, is that full consideration be given to ensure that the system is easy to use for anyone, while at the same time creating a system that features advanced functions.
And so, designers must always bear in mind the question of whether or not their system is truly easy to handle for users, for example, whether the driver can perform a quick search, or whether he or she is given easy access to functions they need. This is "ground zero" for our product design, to which we can return at any time in our efforts to develop unique products.
Going forward, one of the greatest challenges for our product development is the balance between advanced functions and operability. The ease of use of car navigation systems and other on-board equipment that we make has a direct impact on safe driving. As car navigation systems become increasingly multi-functional and an integral part of the automobile, we will give greater attention to making ours easy to use.
Enhancing the social value of cars
Drive Assist Products Development Department
Hirosumi Morisaki
My responsibility as part of the drive assist products development team is vehicle cameras, which could be said to form the core of the drive assist system.
In the flow of driver response, from recognition, to judgment, to operation, these cameras support the first two. In the future, this system will be combined with image recognition technology and play a key role in more advanced navigation, for example, by detecting the position of a car down to the traffic lane to let the driver know which lane they should be in before entering an intersection. For vehicle cameras to perform such a function, it is necessary that they generate colors that drivers can easily recognize at a glance, and thus we need to improve various technologies toward this end, including signal processing. We are undergoing a great deal of trial and error in pursuit of these easily recognizable colors, so that we can add a competitive edge to our products.
When thinking about the pros and cons of cars for society, traffic accidents and congestion are obviously negative, but many forms of advantages are also offered, such as the freedom to move anytime, anywhere. I would be delighted if our product development could bring these automobile advantages to society at large.
