Tokyo Motor Show 2017
Lexus Press Day Presentation
Lexus International President, Yoshihiro Sawa

Good morning everyone. I am Sawa, President of Lexus International. Thank you very much for coming to the Tokyo Motor Show and to the Lexus booth.

We at Lexus have always aimed to go beyond the expectations of our customers ever since we released the first-generation LS in 1989, the epoch-making car that redefined the concept of luxury vehicles. The new fifth-generation LS that we launched last week in Japan was also developed with such an aspiration.

Lexus aims to provide a lifestyle that allows the time and spaces created by its cars and the brand to become an incomparable experience. For this, Lexus will always take on new challenges to anticipate the future, with a commitment to provide new amazing experiences. The new tagline "Experience Amazing" that we announced early this year is suffused with this conviction. In terms of our cars, we pursued a new emotional value for Lexus with the LC that was released in spring, by insisting on viscerally good looking design and a delightful drive. The Lexus Sport Yacht Concept that we also announced this year is a new concept that we proposed as a lifestyle brand that goes beyond cars. Lexus is extremely unique as a brand in that the top executive Akio Toyoda personally participates in such brand-making activities. With this direct involvement of Akio Toyoda, who also acts as our Master Driver, Lexus will continue to push the envelope as a lifestyle brand.

Today, I would like to present a concept car that gives expression to such unremitting endeavors to take on new challenges. Please take a look.

What do you think? Lexus will not stop at the new LS model released last week equipped with the latest safety technology, and will continue to take on challenges with an eye towards 2020. This LS+ Concept is a concept car that combines the new potentials of Lexus design, and the latest automated-driving technology that we are aiming to deliver in the near future.

We achieved a form that is at once progressive and dignified as an exploration of the next generation based on Lexus' unique design philosophy "L-finesse", culminating in a style that is bold yet meticulous, harmonizing seemingly contradictory elements. Moreover, we have expressed a new design language with the front and rear design, pursuing a high-level integration of imaginative technology and style elements, such as the aerodynamic, and cooling performances, and the lamps.

For advanced technologies, we aim to achieve a society in which "everyone can enjoy safe, smooth, and efficient mobility", particularly through automated-driving technology. More specifically, the concept car is equipped with "Highway Teammate" which will bring automated driving on expressways in 2020. Using automated-driving technology, from the moment the car passes through the expressway entrance ramp, until it goes out of the exit ramp, the car makes proposals about junctions, overtaking preceding vehicles, and change of lanes. The driver may approve such proposals, to enable safe and comfortable transportation to the destination. A system of updating software by connecting the car with our data center will be adopted. These updates make it possible to introduce new functionalities or improve existing ones, enabling the gradual expansion for an even better service. Moreover, we will also employ artificial intelligence (AI) that learns from the big data related to roads and surroundings to dramatically improve the car's perceptive and decision-making capabilities. With such advanced technologies centering around the person that enable the car to understand the state of the driver and support him or her, Lexus will deliver cars that can be driven even more safely and comfortably.

Lexus is also developing automated driving for ordinary roads and not just expressways. We will continue to evolve the technologies of the LS+ Concept by working on the implementation of "Urban Teammate" in the early 2020s to achieve automated driving on ordinary roads. We will aim for an automated-driving level of four or above to achieve a "mobility society where everyone can move safely, smoothly, and freely".

As we have presented to you today, the LS+ Concept is a model that represents the future direction of Lexus. But Lexus will take on more challenges too. Focusing on the four axes of "brave design", "exhilarating performance", "Takumi craftsmanship", and "imaginative technology", Lexus will continue to deliver amazing experiences.

We will continue to push forward our endeavors so that we can deliver news to you in the near future. Thank you for your attention.