In order to better demonstration some of the future technology that might eventually find their way in to Toyota vehicles, the company has unveiled a very unique concept skateboard that utilizes a Microsoft Kinect motion sensing camera an Windows 8 tablet.

The skateboard uses the camera and tablet to control the speed of the motorized skateboard using nothing but hand gestures and other movements in front of the Kinect.

Toyota is also working with Microsoft’s skeletal tracking technology right now so that they can track the position of people and their movements while in a vehicle, which should allow them to create better safety systems that understand and know the positioning of the passengers.

Both the skateboard and the skeletal tracking efforts are part of a Microsoft and Toyota partnership to figure out innovative ways to use Kinect and Windows technology in the automotive industry. While moving your hands around a camera to move a car might not sound like a great idea at this point, these kinds of tests and experiments could lead to major advancements down the road.

[ source ]

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It was at that time that the Toyota eQ, a full electric version of the iQ minicar, was revealed to the world. This was supposed to start a much larger trend toward pure electrics, but “two years later, there are many difficulties,” according to Toyota vice-chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada. “The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society’s needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge.”

Yes, we’ve seen the launch of such vehicles as the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, but Toyota is going to spend more time working on what it already does best: hybrids. The Toyota Prius is the first car that comes to the mind of consumers when it comes to gas-electric hybrid cars and Toyota plans on furthering that established leadership. In fact, they are expecting to have 21 hybrid cars in the lineup by 2015, 14 of which will be all-new. They want to have a hybrid variant of every vehicle they sell.

The plug-in hybrid market hasn’t been very good for Toyota either. They wanted to sell between 35,000 and 40,000 Prius plug-in hybrids in 2012 in Japan, but they have only sold 8,400 to date. It’s no wonder that they really want to focus on their bread and butter of “conventional” gas-electric hybrids.

With the wider rollout of the eQ city car put on hold, Toyota is now left with just one pure electric in the form of the all-electric RAV4, an SUV that it co-developed with Tesla Motors. They’re looking to sell about 2,600 of those in the next three years.

[Source]

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Say goodbye to the gas pump for good. Toyota officially debuted its RAV4 full electric vehicle at the 26th annual Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles. This is no longer a concept; it’s the production model and is available through dealers starting at $49,800, not including delivery fees.

The modern market’s first all-electric SUV, getting substantially larger and more practical than something like the Tesla Roadster. Yes, Toyota partnered up with Tesla two years ago and now that partnership is bearing some all-electric fruit for the Japanese automaker. Despite having to load in plenty of electric components, the RAV4 EV is supposed to offer the same kind of cargo capacity as its gas-powered counterpart.

As with other full electrics, the RAV4 EV won’t have the same kind of range as the gas-powered RAV4, of course. Toyota is claiming an effective range of 100 miles (161 km), which has become the norm for electric vehicles. The kicker, of course, is that the RAV4 EV is much larger than most electric vehicles. They’ve stuck with front-wheel drive and a mere 154hp to help improve the range too. Even so, you can get from 0-60mph time of seven seconds before topping out at 100mph. A full charge via a 240V outlet takes six hours; you can do the 120V thing too, but it’ll take you much longer.

Look for the Toyota RAV4 EV this summer in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Diego.

[Source]

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The Audi R-18 e-tron Quattro in action at Spa

Some car companies use ads or give out their new models for test drives to woo their customers. But Not Audi! The German car manufacturer has a no frills way to prove their car’s worth, taking it out on the race track for a survival test against the best, and the world is invited to watch the spectacle. But more often than not, Audi end up playing not just a survival game, they end up winning. Following that tradition, Audi debuted their two new race cars at the “Six Hours of Spa” – the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the famed Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on Sunday. And they made history at the event, not just by fielding the first-ever diesel hybrid race car in motorsport history, but also by recording a podium finish with it. Audi fielded their new R-18 Ultra and R18 e-tron (hybrid) Quattro cars at Spa and they proved to be too good for the others in the race, including rivals Toyota. The marquee entered two diesel R-18s and two hybrids and they had a stunning 1-2-3-4 finish in Belgium, the pure diesel beating the hybrid to the chequered flag but only by a small margin of 46 seconds, which is miniscule in endurance racing.

The Audi trio of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer drove the first ever diesel-electric racing car out on track at Spa and drove it to pole position during qualifying

The Audi trio of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, who were the Le Mans 24-hours champions last year, had the honour to take out the first diesel-electric racing car in history and they were in no mood to play second fiddle to their fully diesel teammates. In fact, they took pole for the race and led the early stages before a tyre choice gave the advantage to the R-18 diesel driven by Romain Dumas, Loïc Duval and Marc Gené and they maintained that till the finish line. The hybrid Quattro, with its far-from-optimum set-up and balance due to the front wheel drive, was clearly the star of the weekend though and its good showing promises a bright future, especially since the racing fraternity and international racing federation (FIA) are looking at means to reduce the carbon footprint of this global sport. Audi has been dominating endurance racing for a while now, being last year’s champions in the Le Mans 24 hours and winning the opening round of the WEC this year at Sebring in their last year’s car. And with this performance in their new car, one of which is a hybrid by the way, they seem to be set to continue dominating endurance racing. Toyota and the chasing pack will have to come out with a miraculous package if they have to catch the Audis by the time the endurance bandwagon reaches the shores of France for the 24 hours Le Mans endurance classic on June 16 & 17. Away from the race track, the result means that the average rubber-burning, speed freaks among us needn’t be that guilty about the adverse affects of your fetish on the environment any more. Green race cars, capable of beating, the best are in town. [ Source ]

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Although Detroit’s NAIAS is thought of as the first big auto event of the year, the presence of automobile giants at CES suggests that the Las Vegas event is fast becoming the kick-off of the year’s major auto events in regards to in-vehicle computing. We saw some interesting stuff at the automotive area of CES 2012 this year, one among which is the RoadRover Android-powered dashboard.

As you might know, the company already provides its service via a number of vehicle models such as Audi A3, Nissan Altima, Peugeot 407/408, Toyota Tundra, Chevrolet Captiva and others.

With the RoadRover Android system, you will be able to synchronize data among Android-powered devices such as smartphones and tablets.  You will have access to Android Market for playing with a lot apps from the comfort of your car and get access to Facebook updates and tweets via your connected smartphone.

They are also providing external USB camera support which lets you take pictures while traveling and you will be able to upload everything right away onto your Facebook profile. But for that also, you just need your handset. Let’s not forget about its navigation capabilities too.

[ source ]

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are increasing in popularity and in variety. Even within Toyota, they have introduced some new variants to the Prius line, but what if you want something even smaller and even more efficient? That’s where the newly revealed Toyota Aqua cruises into the picture.

The Toyota Aqua, from what I can see, looks to be roughly Yaris-sized and is purpose-built for the Japanese urban commuter. This is Toyota’s smallest hybrid offering on the market and it is said to get 35.4 km per liter; that works out to about 83MPG or 2.8L/100km. That’s better than its Prius stablemate, which “only” gets 32.6 km per liter.

The good news is that Toyota isn’t keeping the Aqua to just the roads of Japan. They have plans to roll it out worldwide next year to about 50 countries around the globe. It may not be known as the Aqua when it reaches a dealership near you, though, as it is being marketed as the Prius c on the international market. The European version is based on the Yaris, but gets the same hybrid system.

Pricing for the Toyota Aqua in the Japanese domestic market is set to start at 1.69 million yen (about $22,000), though the local price in other markets will surely vary.

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We use our smartphones for just about everything these days, from music listening to GPS navigating, but it’s not exactly appropriate to hold your phone between your fingers on the steering wheel. And that’s where the MirrorLink protocol comes into the picture (no pun intended).

One of the first to implement this tech is Toyota, which plans on using this in its iQ subcompact later this year. Basically, MirrorLink by the Car Connectivity Consortium takes your smartphone and mirrors its display on the car’s larger display. This isn’t just a straight blow up, though, as there are some car-centric optimizations in place.

The car’s infotainment system can be largely powered by your smartphone, providing it with the tunes and such. You can also make and receive phone calls, and the 7-inch screen on the iQ will be optimized for this purpose while still mostly mirroring what you see on your phone. The same can be said about the GPS navigation for your turn-by-turn directions.

In the instance of Nokia phones with Symbian Belle, there is the Nokia Car Mode app that connects to the Touch Life system. The simplified version of the phone’s UI runs while the car is motion, making it more convenient for the driver to interact with it. A fuller UI is available when the car is stationary. In the case of the iPhone, there’s the Application Launcher app that does a similar thing.

Carmakers could develop their own UIs, but why re-invent the wheel, right?

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Pollution is one of the most serious problems of this planet. The huge amount of toxins emitted into the atmosphere by large factories and automobiles are detrimental, they rely on harmful fossil fuels to run which contribute greatly to the problem. Carless or car-free cities and other means of getting to places without using cars is much harder to earn widespread adoption. Another way is to divert to electric vehicles.  This is good, but people hesitate from embracing electric vehicles because of misconceptions or fears around range and charging times.  The batteries are also not the friendliest on the planet, and take tonnes of old resources to manufacture themselves.  So people look at them as an inconvenient, temporary patch for a long-term problem.

The concept of a road that keeps the electric vehicle charged while driving is something that is not really new, but recently, Toyota Central R & D Labs, together with Toyohashi University of Technology, are reviving the idea. A “solar highway” that would charge EVs could make the entire EV thing a little more appealing. The construction of this road will involve digging to install metal plates under the surface. These metal plates will be electrified and convert energy through a radio frequency to steel belts in the car’s tires along with the plate sitting above the tire. According to researchers, this could allow electric vehicles of the future to be lighter than they are at present, have greater range, and be able to receive energy from truly renewable sources. At the moment, they are testing the idea.

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Looks like Toyota is going around making friends with just about everyone in the automotive industry. We’ve already seen the beginnings of the FT-86 (Scion FR-S) co-developed with Subaru, as well as the partnership with Tesla Motors to do the RAV4 EV. And now, Toyota has shaken some hands in Detroit, and will be buddying up with Ford to develop a hybrid system.

A “preliminary agreement” was reached between the two automakers, and they have promised to work together to build a hybrid drive system primarily for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. The goal is to have vehicles using the new tech on the road at some point during this decade. They’re also working together on internet-based services and in-car communications. Ford plans to triple its North American output of EVs and hybrids to more than 100,000 by 2013.

Ford knows trucks. Toyota knows hybrids. This partnership makes sense. It’ll also help Ford stay in line with the new CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) restrictions put in place by Obama, which will force automakers to reach 54.5 MPG by 2025. Trucks can’t really lose the power they need, but they do need to cut back on their fuel consumption. The blue oval had previously worked with Toyota, using Toyota tech in the 2004 Escape Hybrid.

Photo: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg.

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Many people think of California when they think of electric vehicles, but the Great White North is getting into the electric frenzy too. Toyota Canada has announced that it will start assembling electric versions of the RAV4 at its Woodstock facility in the next few months. This comes via a partnership with, you guessed it, Tesla Motors.

Delivery of the RAV4 EV is expected to start some time next year, but it’s going to take even longer before Canada has the kind of infrastructure it needs to really support a network of electric vehicles. As I’ve said before, I’m not convinced that EVs are the future, but they could help to move the industry forward.

Toyota is getting some help from the government to the tune of $141 million, which will be put toward the $545 million budget needed for Project Green Light. Combined, Toyota’s plants in Cambridge and Woodstock employ about 6,500 workers. By expanding to include production of the RAV4 EV, those jobs are likely a little more secure than if they decided to build it with Tesla in California instead.

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