Toyota is expected this year to move past Detroit giant General Motors as the world's top-selling automaker, in part due to its success in pioneering eco-friendly hybrid cars at a time of high prices at the pump.

Toyota introduced three models of its Crown, its flagship domestic line, including one with a petrol-electric hybrid engine.

The new models to be sold in Japan are installed with a pre-crash safety system, billed as a world first by Toyota, which detects if drivers' eyes are fully open, the company said.

Once the system catches that a driver's eyes are closed for a while, it gives out an alert and forces the vehicle to stop when a risk of collision arises, the company said.

"The new Crown maintains the traditional quality of trust and safety while being equipped with state-of-the-art technologies," Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters.

"We have customers who strongly support the Crown brand over the Lexus."

The Crown line was first launched in 1955 as Toyota's flagship luxury sedan and is particularly popular in the Japanese market.

The Lexus, another flagship luxury model, was launched in 1989 for the North American market. It was later expanded elsewhere and was introduced to Japan only in 2005.

"The Lexus is the universal brand while we target a different customer group with the Crown," Watanabe said.

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