The automotive industry is a copycat business. If a certain kind of tech shows up in one car model or the models put out by a particular brand, it will likely show up elsewhere if it proves successful. It is normal for any real innovation to be copied, with each automotive brand putting its own spin on a popular idea.
What is interesting about the Toyota brand is that it is often a genuine innovator. The company will come out with models featuring tech that becomes commonplace with other car manufacturers. It is usually Toyota that comes up with the tech in the first place, though.
The Toyota SLC UT is one of the better-selling models you can get your hands on today. It features rudimentary versions of some of the innovative tech that we will discuss in the following article.
The Toyota Kikai
Source: youtube.com
At auto shows recently, the Toyota company has been showing off what they refer to as their Kikai. It is like a stripped-down version of a vehicle that you’d see in a museum. The one the company shows most often has an electric motor and a 1.5L, 4-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine.
If you visit an auto show and see the Kikai, you can check out the nuts and bolts behind this concept car. The parts are usually labeled, and there are often salespeople who show off what the vehicle can do by highlighting its finer points.
The Toyota FCV Plus Concept
Modern Toyota models also owe a lot to what the company calls the Toyota FCV Plus concept. This is an idea or framework for a hydrogen vehicle. While that tech is not ready quite yet for cars available to the public, the company is taking strides in that direction with each passing year.
The main point of the concept is that a car can be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. This will give vehicle buyers a renewable fuel resource apart from electricity. When these vehicles finally arrive, they should further reduce the need for cars powered by gasoline and other fossil fuels that pollute the environment.
The Mobility Teammate Concept
Source: pinterest.com
Toyota is also making strides in the area of self-driving cars. Like their vehicles with the hydrogen fuel cells, their self-driving car is not available for purchase yet, but the company continues publishing reports on this advancing tech. They call their particular self-driving car project the Mobility Teammate.
The idea is that you’ll have a car that can drive itself, but you can quickly retake control if you ever encounter a traffic pattern or another situation that calls for it. This tech will meld self-driving cars with ones that you can control when it finally becomes available to eager consumers worldwide.
You can see how Toyota is driving the automotive industry forward. While their current vehicles may not have some of this tech available in them yet, it’s coming soon. Their modern line of cars becomes more thrilling for drivers as the years pass.
