Friendly future with Toyota’s Concept-i

“Yui” will help you drive better and connect you with the world around you. This is the connected autonomous car of the future. On 4^th January, at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, it was Toyota’s first display of the Concept-i prototype. Toyota tried to come up with a method to humanize all that hardware and software by using artificial intelligence that learns and grows with the driver.

This prototype was designed in Toyota’s CALTY advanced development center in Newport Beach, California.

“We recognize that the important question isn’t whether future vehicles will be equipped with automated or connected technologies,” said Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota. “It is the experience of the people who engage with those vehicles. Thanks to Concept-i and the power of artificial intelligence, we think the future is a vehicle that can engage with people in return.”

Toyota says that one of the problems in these kinds of autonomous cars is that they don’t have that human touchy-feely sentiment, especially when humans have that emotional connection with their cars. The Concept-i car is drivable by humans, this means that you don’t feel like luggage all the time.

This car can be driven manually or in autonomous mode, or as it is said somewhere in between. If it’s perhaps necessary, it can help navigating in dangerous driving conditions.

“Yui,” as the carmaker explains, “is designed to communicate across cultures to a global audience. With Yui’s home centered on the dashboard, Concept-i’s interior emanates around the driver and passenger side and throughout the vehicle in sweeping lines, with interior shapes designed to enhance Yui’s ability to use light, sound and even touch to communicate critical information.” Looking inside and comparing it to other new high-tech vehicles, Concept-i chooses fewer video screens. For example lights in the footwall tell you how the vehicle is operating, on manual or autonomous mode. There is also a head-up display, meaning that driver’s eyes don’t wonder away from the road while driving.

Concept-i car communicates also outside the car, having displays that are built into the door panels welcoming those who are approaching. The front display is tells motorists or pedestrians how the vehicle is operating, on manual or autonomous mode. Back display gives notice to other drivers about possible hazards or turns. The interior as well as the exterior are illuminated with two distinct colors, depending on which driving mode is used. Purple is for self-driving and green for human driving. As said by the design Chief Cartabiano, all these softer indicators are borne on one very old Japanese principle of hospitality, “omotenashi”. This literally means the Japanese way of treating a guest”, and that is the spirit of welcoming in a warm way, respect and understanding.

Toyota says that there are plans to test the prototype on public roads in Japan in few years, showing that Concept-i is not just a fantasy show car. It could be possible to use some of these technologies in production.

Watch video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrcYSbZeyEQ&feature=youtu.be