Toyota Sharing Its Automated Safety System with Rival OEMs
To curb crashes and save lives, Toyota Motor Company will offer its Guardian automated safety system to competitive original equipment manufacturers, either through licensing or entire systems.

Toyota's Guardian advanced safety system uses self-driving technology to keep cars from crashing.
Photo courtesy of Toyota.
To curb crashes and save lives, Toyota Motor Company will offer its Guardian automated safety system to competitive original equipment manufacturers, either through licensing or entire systems, reports Bloomberg.
The automaker recently made the announcement at the CES show and says the move comes in an effort to do what is good for society.
Guardian uses self-driving technology to keep cars from crashing. However, Guardian is being developed to amplify human control of the vehicle, not replace it. With Guardian, the driver is meant to be in control of the car at all times, except in those cases where Guardian anticipates or identifies a pending incident and employs a corrective response in coordination with driver input.
For example, Guardian will seize control of a car and steer it around a possible crash or accelerate out of the path of an oncoming vehicle running a red light, reports Bloomberg.
Advocates say the technology has the potential to save countless lives. With Toyota's new willingness to share what is presently proprietary, any automaker that wants access to the technology can have it in the not too distant future—upping the odds for reducing roadway fatalities.
In 2018, the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) stepped up efforts to make Guardian a smarter machine. The technology continues to undergo rigorous and demanding driving scenarios, including "corner cases" that are too dangerous to perform on public roads. On closed courses, engineers challenge and stretch Guardian's intelligence and capabilities. Through continuous refinement, Guardian learns how best to navigate and react to dangerous scenarios, as they unfold.
Toyota has been developing Toyota Guardian technology for the past three years and plans to roll it out on the nation's highways and byways early next decade, according to the Bloomberg report.
More Safety

The Safest Fleets Aren’t the Ones with the Most Technology
You’ve made the telematics investment. Here’s how to capture the other half of its value and build the safest fleet on the road.
Read More →
Hidden in Plain Sight: Fleet Compliance Risks
Fleet compliance isn't just about having policies — it's about consistently enforcing them. This practical guide reveals six hidden compliance risks common in public sector and shared fleet operations and outlines proven strategies to improve visibility, accountability, and audit readiness
Read More →
NETS Sets 2026 Fleet Safety Benchmark Conference for Indianapolis
The Sept. 15–17 program will feature fleet benchmarking data, case studies, emerging technologies, and implementation strategies while running alongside the NSC Safety Congress & Expo.
Read More →
Off-the-Job Crashes Account for 43% of Employers’ $61.7 Billion Crash Burden
NETS quantifies costs dispersed across fleet, risk, HR, and other departments while providing new per-crash benchmarks for employers.
Read More →
Ram Recalls More Than 1.27 Million 1500 Pickups for Seat Belt Anchor Issue
The recall affects certain 2019-2026 Ram 1500 pickups that may have improperly attached second-row seat belt buckle anchors.
Read More →How Better Visibility Cut Speeding Violations by 48%
Fleet leaders don't need more data, they need clearer visibility into what the data is saying. This case study explores how one utility replaced speeding-event counts with a single metric — miles driven in violation — to strengthen safety and significantly reduce speeding violations.
Read More →
Operation Safe Driver Week: Why the Industry's Oldest Safety Campaign Still Matters to Fleets
A look at how a 2007 enforcement initiative became one of the most consequential weeks on the fleet safety calendar, and what it means for your drivers in 2026.
Read More →
Nexar-Nauto Merger Aims to Give Fleets Better Safety Intelligence Through Larger Driving Dataset
Stefan Heck tells Automotive Fleet that combining more than 10 billion miles of driving history with Nexar's AI models will give fleets deeper insights into driver risk and roadway conditions than either company could provide independently.
Read More →From Silos to Solutions: Relationship Management for Safer Fleets
From telematics adoption and driver accountability to policy consistency and risk mitigation, this episode breaks down what it really takes to build a safer fleet culture without slowing business down.
Read More →
IIHS Launches First Commercial Vehicle Safety Evaluations
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has begun evaluating heavy-duty pickups and cargo vans for driver protection. Which models earned top marks?
Read More →
