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Driving Innovation
How will AI change the way we drive?
Cars give us freedom and enable our adventures - and we love them for it. But what if your car could love you back? Explore the latest in AI-driven innovation.
Can artificial intelligence go beyond self-driving vehicles?
Toyota’s Concept-i’s advanced AI system, Yui, is focused as much on the occupants of the vehicle as it is on the road ahead.Yui learns as it builds a meaningful relationship with the driver, paying attention to the driver’s comfort and wellbeing. It makes conversation and responds to questions. It notices if the driver is tiring and puffs up an air cushion in the seat to help them stay alert. It uses lighting, air-conditioning and scents to improve the mood inside the cabin. The AI even plays music based on the outside environment and engages in conversation with real-time updates on topics of interest to the driver. Yui is a real leap in thinking. Instead of advancing with cold, robotic indifference, Toyota has gone the human route, choosing to integrate its tech with more than a touch of humanity.
“Yui learns from us. Grows with us. Builds a relationship that’s meaningful and emotional. It learns our preferences and our lifestyle and remembers where we like to go, pays attention to whether we’re happy or sad, and helps in ways that are both big and small,” says Bob Carter, Senior VP of Automotive Operations.
Will cars be more accessible in the future?
The Toyota i-Ride is a small, two-person mobility vehicle made with the elderly and wheelchair users in mind. Its gullwing doors aren’t just pretty. They’re designed to lift a wheelchair and swing it into the car as the seat slides back to accommodate it. Everything about i-Ride is considerate of a driver with limited movement. It doesn’t even take up room with a steering wheel, instead it’s operated with a pair of joysticks mounted at the end of the armrests. With all this and Toyota’s artificial intelligence, Yui, built-in, the i-Ride is ramping up to be a game-changer in the world of mobility.
Will self-driving cars be smart enough to allow drivers to switch off?
Self-driving cars are still early in their development and have plenty of limitations, but the technology is advancing fast. We expect vehicles of the future will move you while you’re busy doing other things. Toyota’s concept vehicle, the Fine Comfort Ride, runs on hydrogen to support our increasingly low-carbon society. Beyond its fuel system, the Fine Comfort Ride’s adaptable layout is something to behold. In self-drive mode the vehicle can transform from a car into a meeting space. The seats swivel to face inwards, so you can have a proper four-way face-to-face conversation. This kind of cabin adaptability opens up all sorts of other possibilities, like having a bed in the car. You could go to sleep in Auckland and wake up in Wellington, driven there by a fully autonomous vehicle. It’s futuristic but that kind of future’s a lot closer than you might think.