Chameleon car

As visions for better motoring go, it’s hard to top Toyota’s dream of a world with none of the bad things that come from cars — pollution and congestion — but lots of the good things, like excitement, comfort and, as the company’s head of R&D Kazuo Okamoto, recently told journalists, ‘zero traffic accidents’.

Such a goal may sound preposterous, but engineers need dreams. And Toyota is under no illusion that it might reach its goal any time soon. Nor does it think that technology alone will do the job; safer mobility demands safer cars, safer driving and better roads. As Okamoto explained, the company’s Today for Tomorrow slogan can be understood in the simple notion that taking action now is the only way to have a chance of realising any grand vision.

Okamoto was introducing a system, new to the Japanese market, based on millimetre-wave radar similar to that used in advanced cruise control systems. It also monitors steering movements to detect obstacles and warn the driver of an imminent collision. If a collision is inevitable, it can pre-arm the brake-assist system, pre-tighten seat belts and even apply the brakes. Impressive, but it soon became clear to anyone who took part in the demonstration that there is a long engineering road to travel before new vehicle technology like this makes the roads dramatically safer. This ‘Pre-Cash Safety’ system did help slow the car down before it hit an orange traffic cone on a test track, but it only worked when the cone was fitted with a radar reflector.