Honda will not reveal how much it has spent developing the robot but Mr Keeney said it was considerably less than is spent on developing a prototypevehicle.
Ford has developed a prototype vehicle--the P2000--that replaces steel and cast iron in several key components as part of an effort to reduce the weight of a vehicle by 40%, which would create dramatic fuel efficiencies.
The "advanced active safety research vehicle" prototype uses ITS and existing Toyota technology to monitor whether the driver is awake, to keep the car on the road, and to stop at traffic signals.
In late 2011 he released a prototype app called Trimmit and secured financial backing from Horizons Ventures, the investment vehicle of billionaire Ka-shing, and spent much of 2012 working with specialist NLP engineers and angel investors to improve the app and re-release it as Summly.