Toyota and Lexus recalling 645,000 vehicles for air bags that may fail to deploy

Toyota is recalling 645,000 vechilces worldwide for a serious electrical problem that stops airbags from deploying in the event of an accident. This covers Toyota Prius and Lexus RX and NX SUVs. Also covered are some Toyota Alphard, Vellfire, Sienta, Noah, Voxy, Esquire, Probox, Succeed, Corolla, Highlander, Levin and Hilux models. All were produced from May of 2015 to March of 2016.

Toyota says says an open electrical circuit could occur over time. That would set off an air bag warning light and could stop the side and front air bags from deploying. Toyota will notify owners by letter in starting in late March.

Source: CTV News

Dx3 Study: Car brands have only 20-seconds to influence a shopper’s opinion

A Study from year’s Dx3 Canada show investigated what consumers look for when shopping for a new car by having them wear eye trackers in a mock showroom. The results show that car brands only have a 20-second window to influence a shopper’s opinion.  

Click to read more ...

Toyota unveils autonomous vehicle platform

Toyota revealed its second autonomous vehicle platform from the Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The Lexus LS 600hL is mounted with cameras, radar and lidar sensors for gathering realtime information and maintaining the car's pace.

Toyota is using thethe platform to develop a driver assist suite and a level 4 and 5 autonomous system:

• Chauffeur refers to the always deployed, fully autonomous system classified by SAE as unrestricted Level 5 autonomy and Level 4 restricted and geo-fenced operation.

• Guardian is a high-level driver assist system, constantly monitoring the driving environment inside and outside the vehicle, ready to alert the driver of potential dangers and stepping in when needed to assist in crash avoidance.

Toyota hasn’t released a clear timeline for when it plans on bringing full autonomy to market, but most companies are aiming for 2020-2021.

Source: Electrek

Toyota's U2 concept focuses on urban utility at the Canadian International AutoShow

New to the Canadian International AutoShow this year is Toyota's U2 concept which is designed as featuring the best parts of an SUV, mail truck, and cargo van. Focusing on versatile functionality, the u2 concept only has one seat for the driver and everything else can be customized or added as needed. It's a clever concept, one that we would expect from Toyota's now retired Scion brand.

It's rare to have a concept vehicle that's so versatile and open in what sort of user or applications it can be used on and this is one of the concepts that we are looking forward to checking out when the Canadian International AutoShow kicks off this week in Toronto.