Honda Legend — A Type-Designated Level 3 Car Goes on Sale

Level 3 automated driving (conditional driving automation) is the stage at which the system does the driving within limited conditions, such as congested expressway traffic, and the driver takes back control when the system asks, for instance as those conditions are about to end. The first production car to offer it in Japan was the Legend Hybrid EX・Honda SENSING Elite, which Honda put on sale on 5 March 2021. It was announced the day before, on 4 March; it was offered only by lease and only in Japan, with a planned run of 100 cars at a suggested retail price of ¥11,000,000 including consumption tax. Its congestion function, Traffic Jam Pilot, had received type designation as an automated operation device from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) on 11 November 2020, which the ministry announced as the world's first type designation for a vehicle equipped with an automated operation device.

The definitions of the levels are on the SAE J3016 page. This page covers the legal changes that made Level 3 usable on Japanese roads, and what the Legend actually did.

The 2019 amendments that made Level 3 possible

Selling a Level 3 car required changing both the vehicle safety standards and the rules for drivers. Amendments to the Road Transport Vehicle Act and the Road Traffic Act were both passed by the Diet in May 2019, and their automated-driving provisions took effect in April 2020.

The National Police Agency explains that, together with the vehicle-law amendment, these provisions allowed SAE Level 3 vehicles to travel safely on the road. Internationally, the UN's World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP29) adopted an international standard for automated operation devices in June 2020; MLIT says Japan led the discussion in its expert groups.

The Legend's Traffic Jam Pilot

These were the main operating conditions MLIT published with the type designation.

According to Honda, when the car meets congestion, Traffic Jam Pilot operates the accelerator, brakes and steering while monitoring the surroundings, keeping to the lane and following, stopping and restarting with the car ahead. Meanwhile the driver may watch TV or a DVD on the navigation screen or search for a destination. When the conditions end, indicator lights and sounds ask the driver to take over; if the driver keeps failing to respond, the car slows and stops while warning others with its hazard lights and horn, moving towards the left lane if there is a shoulder.

Honda said development involved some 10 million simulated scenarios and about 1.3 million km of expressway testing with test vehicles; these are Honda's own figures. The car carried blue accessory lamps to signal that it had an automated operation device, and MLIT asked manufacturers to put a sticker identifying automated vehicles on the rear.

How far "world's first" goes

MLIT's wording is a bounded one: the world's first type designation for a vehicle equipped with an automated operation device. Germany had opened its Road Traffic Act to Level 3 in 2017, but Mercedes-Benz received system approval from the German authority under the UN regulation UN-R157 only in December 2021, and began taking orders in Germany in May 2022 (see the DRIVE PILOT page). The Legend came earlier, but as a 100-car lease offer in Japan only.

Afterwards: end of production, and a robotaxi plan

The Legend did not stay in production for long. According to Car Watch in June 2021, Honda decided, with the closure of its Sayama vehicle plant, to end production of three models including the Legend within 2021, and had notified dealers at the end of March. Consolidating the plants was a policy it had announced in 2017.

Honda then turned from Level 3 in private cars to driverless mobility services. On 19 October 2023 it announced a memorandum of understanding with GM and GM's Cruise aimed at forming a joint venture to start a driverless ride-hailing service in central Tokyo in early 2026. The plan was to start with dozens of Cruise Origin vehicles, which have no driver's seat or steering wheel, and expand to 500. On 10 December 2024, however, GM announced that it would no longer fund Cruise's robotaxi development; that story is on the Cruise suspension page. In Tokyo, a different group is now aiming for driverless taxis during 2027 (see the Waymo page).

Impact on society

In announcing the type designation, MLIT wrote that automated vehicles are expected to help solve social problems such as reducing traffic accidents, securing mobility for older people and raising productivity in logistics. What the Legend showed was a step short of that: in one narrow situation, a congested expressway, it freed the driver from watching the road and reduced fatigue and stress.

Level 3 does not release the driver from driving altogether. The National Police Agency warns that when the conditions of use stop being met the driver is required to take over immediately and reliably, and urges drivers to understand each device's conditions and performance correctly. MLIT's own announcement stated that drivers must not overtrust the system and must always remain able to drive. On compensation after a crash, an MLIT study group concluded in 2018 that operator liability under the Automobile Liability Security Act should be kept during the transition up to Level 4 (see the SAE J3016 page).

At 100 cars, the Legend could not visibly change accidents or the burden of driving across society. Its significance is that it put on public roads a production car in which watching TV while the system drives was, within conditions, legally allowed, with type designation, safety standards and traffic rules all in place. The next step in the rules was the 2023 amendment to the Road Traffic Act that put driverless Level 4 under a permit system.