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Toyota will share its patented hybrid vehicle tech for free
With more than 80 percent of the hybrid vehicle market, Toyota is undoubtedly a leader in hybrid technology. Rather than lock that expertise away, Toyota announced it will share nearly 24,000 patents with fellow automakers. According to the company, this is an attempt to promote electrified vehicles worldwide and combat global emissions -- a kind of rising tide lifts all boats approach.
Robots will serve as guides for the 2020 Olympics
You didn't think a 2020 summer Olympics set in Japan would go without some robots, did you? Sure enough, they're on their way. The Tokyo Olympics' Organizing Committee has launched a Tokyo 2020 Robot Project that will have automatons providing assistance both to spectators and crews behind the scenes. Robots from Toyota (above) will help wheelchair-bound guests by guiding them to their seats, delivering food and providing event info. Panasonic, meanwhile, will provide Power Assist Suit exoskeletons (below) to help workers carry food, trash and other heavy cargo with relative ease.
Toyota will be first to use NVIDIA's self-driving simulator
NVIDIA has announced that its autonomous vehicle simulation platform Drive Constellation is now available and that Toyota will be the first customer. The cloud based platform, first announced by CEO Jensen Huang last year, will let self-driving car developers run tests on virtual, rather than real roads. Simulated vehicles can operate in situations ranging from routine to dangerous, "with greater efficiency, cost-effectiveness and safety than what is possible to achieve in the real world," NVIDIA said.
Japan's moon rover will be made by Toyota
Toyota is going to the moon. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has teamed up with the carmaker to build a pressurized self-driving rover that will land on the lunar surface in 2029. The six-wheeled transporter will be able to carry two humans for a distance of 10,000 kilometers using solar power and Toyota's fuel cell technology. The rover will be about the size of two minibuses, with 13 square meters of habitable space, and the astronauts on board will be able to take their suits off inside the vehicle as they explore. It will land on the moon before the human expedition arrives, and travel independently to meet them.
Toyota experiment uses cameras to create city maps for self-driving cars
Self-driving cars usually benefit from having detailed road maps, but creating those maps can be agonizingly slow when it requires cars loaded with exotic hardware. Toyota researchers and Carmera might have an easier solution: use off-the-shelf cameras to get the job done. They're planning a "proof of concept" project where they'll use both Toyota Safety Sense-based cameras and run-of-the-mill dashcams to generate map data in downtown Tokyo. The months-long experiment will mix visual and existing digital map data to spot road markings, curbs and other details an autonomous vehicle would need to recognize while plotting its route.
Toyota's car subscription service rewards you for safe driving
Toyota has teamed up with Sumitomo Mitsui Auto Service Company to launch a new car subscription service with gamification elements in Japan. The program is called Kinto, and it'll offer two tiers: the first, called Kinto One, will allow you to drive one Toyota vehicle over a three-year period for anywhere between $420 and $900 a month. When the tier becomes available on March 1st, you can choose from the available Prius, Corolla Sport, Alphard, Vellfire and Crown models. The other tier called Kinto Select will give you the power to drive one of the available Lexus-branded vehicles for $1,630 a month for three years.
Toyota and Panasonic may team up to make EV batteries
Toyota and Panasonic have explored electric car batteries before, but they're now poised to get particularly cozy. Nikkei sources claim the two will set up a joint venture for manufacturing EV batteries sometime in 2020. Reportedly, they intend to reduce the costs of the power packs through sheer economies of scale, and would supply both Toyota's Daihatsu brand as well as outside companies like Mazda and Subaru. They're also hoping to court Honda as it dives into EVs, according to the sources.
Toyota recalls another 1.7 million cars over faulty airbags
The problems with Takata's potentially defective airbags persist years after they began. Toyota has recalled another 1.7 million cars worldwide, 1.3 million of them in the US, over possible faults in their airbag actuators. The new effort covers vehicles made between 2010 and 2015 and comes just weeks after Toyota issued a repeat recall for 65,000 cars after concerns an initial fix still wasn't safe.
Toyota unveils finalists in $4 million quest to reinvent wheelchairs
Toyota's ongoing bid to modernize wheelchairs has borne some fruit. The automaker has unveiled the five finalists for its $4 million Mobility Unlimited Challenge after three years of competition, and all of them promise to rethink how people with mobility issues get around -- in some cases, without using a wheelchair at all. The project you see above is Qolo, a hybrid exoskeleton and wheelchair that can sit or stand. You could talk to standing people at eye level without losing the advantages of a conventional chair.
Toyota's latest self-driving test car is smarter than ever
We got a look at Toyota's first self-driving research vehicle way back during CES 2013, and now the company will introduce the updated P4 platform at CES 2019. It upgrades on the second and third generation cars with the introduction of Lexus' latest flagship sedan, the LS 500h, but it doesn't stop there. The computer managing its technology has not only become more powerful than ever before, but it's also smaller so it tucks directly against the rear seat, and it only requires power from the hybrid battery, using a 12v battery of its own just as an emergency backup.
Toyota untethers its T-HR3 humanoid robot thanks to 5G
Toyota just brought your dreams of an Avatar-like proxy one step closer to reality. Teaming with NTT Docomo, it remotely controlled its T-HR3 humanoid robot over a 5G network from a distance of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). So far the bot, first unveiled a year ago, has only been controlled over a direct wired connection. "This time, with an eye toward improved use in practical environments, the T-HR3 was successfully controlled wirelessly," Toyota said in a press release.
Toyota's 2019 Prius will offer electric all-wheel drive
As efficient as it is, the Prius probably isn't your first pick if you need a car that can navigate a snowy backroad. You might have to rethink your assumptions, though. Toyota is introducing the 2019 Prius with an option for an electric all-wheel drive system (AWD-e in Toyota-speak). Choose the option and you'll get a sedan that can muster a combined 50MPG without losing its footing quite so quickly as front wheel drive cars. The system revolves around an independent electric motor that will always power the rear wheels up to 6MPH, and can continue up to 43MPH when necessary. It doesn't need a center differential or front-to-rear driveshaft, either, and it won't intrude into cargo space.
Toyota will use hydrogen burners to reduce factory emissions
As clean as fuel cell cars and EVs may be, they're still made using pollution-producing factories -- and Toyota wants to help solve this. The company has introduced what it says is the first-ever general-purpose hydrogen burner built for use at factories and other industrial plants. While hydrogen burners have already existed, they've typically pumped out dangerous levels of nitrous oxide due to rapid reactions between hydrogen and oxygen. The new burner keeps the two elements relatively separate and lowers the oxygen concentration, leading to a system with "greatly reduced" nitrous oxygen emissions and the zero carbon dioxide emissions you already get with hydrogen burners.
Pizza Hut's hydrogen delivery truck hauls a robotic kitchen
Pizza Hut will not be outdone in the pursuit of over-the-top delivery vehicles. The restaurant chain has teamed up with Toyota to unveil the Tundra Pie Pro, a concept hydrogen fuel cell truck that not only cooks pizzas, but uses a pair of robot arms to move them along the line. The mechanical limbs fetch pre-assembled pizzas, bake them, slice them and slide them into boxes all on their own -- they'll even ring a bell to let you know your meal is ready.
After Math: It's Spooky Season
The air is crisp, the leaves are changing and everywhere you look, you'll find decorative gourds on display. And y'all know what that means: we're just a few weeks from Halloween! Plenty of companies are already getting into the frightful mood. French researchers figured out how to fingerfy a phone, Telltale's staffing levels have been reduced to a shambling corpse, and Toyota once again warned that its Priuses could go all Christine on their drivers.
Toyota recalls 2.4 million hybrids over stalling risk
Toyota is facing a fresh setback after having to deal with a long line of faults relating to its hybrid cars over the past few years. Some Toyota Prius or Auris cars manufactured between 2008 and 2014 could be at risk of stalling when entering a fail-safe driving mode. The Japanese carmaker is now recalling 1.25 million cars in Japan, 830,000 in North America and 290,000 in Europe in order to fix the issue.
Toyota's e-Palette concept is edging closer to reality
Toyota and Softbank have established a joint venture that could offer various autonomous vehicle services in the future. Softbank already has several self-driving partnerships with other companies. But this one called MONET (a portmanteau for "mobility network") will combine the powers of Toyota's Mobility Services Platform, which serves as its information infrastructure for connected vehicles, and of SoftBank's Internet of Things platform.
Toyota expected to add Android Auto to its cars
Toyota joined the modern era when it started adding CarPlay to its vehicles early in 2018, but that hasn't done you much good if you're an Android user. You might get some relief soon, though. Bloomberg sources said that Toyota has agreed to put direct Android Auto support in its cars, with an announcement as soon as October. You could use the feature through Ford's SmartDeviceLink before, but that limited both their appearance on the center screen and limited their data access.
Toyota recalls over a million hybrid vehicles due to fire risk
Toyota is recalling more than a million Prius and C-HR hybrids worldwide due to a fire risk. Around 192,000 Prius vehicles in the US and more than 550,000 cars in Japan are involved in the recall, which is related to wiring connected to the power control unit. Insulation may wear down over time, potentially leading to a short circuit that could ultimately cause a fire.
The race for self-driving taxis at the 2020 Olympics is heating up
Companies around the world are fervently vying for first place in the race to vehicular autonomy, and now it looks like one venture has crossed the finish line. A self-driving taxi has successfully taken passengers through the busy streets of Tokyo in a demonstration of what could be a fully-fledged service by the time the Olympic Games arrive in the city in 2020.
