With its Open Road Project, Toyota aims to bring its prototype city vehicles to the people to aid in testing and development. According to a press release from Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker will launch round two of the Open Road Project from September 17, 2016 to March 31, 2017. The focus will be on the i-Road, an ultra-compact electric vehicle concept.
Demo models are provided to the members of the general public as well as large businesses and startups, and feedback and data are taken into account. Consumers, or “test pilots” have access to i-Roads, mostly in two-seater form, for two weeks to a month. Households with young children are the main target for this part of the project.
Toyota will also partner with associated services and companies to improve the experience.
For this second round of the project, Toyota is providing the i-Road to businesses to widen the range of assessment and acceptance of the vehicle. For example, a company may retain a fleet of vehicles as part of a shared-use program. The main targets include businesses without company cars, or those with cars that desire a variety of vehicles for different uses. These companies are using mostly single-seater i-Roads.
And as it did with the first round, the Japanese manufacturer will gradually increase the number of locations of the aforementioned associated services, which include exclusive parking spots and charging services, during the trial period. New services will be tested and developed as the program progresses.
A total of 96 test pilots were chosen from a pool of about 3,500 applicants for the first round of the Open Road Project, which only recently came to an end. The generally positive feedback included statements such as “The i-Road is really convenient because I can park it in very small spaces,” and “My range of travel has expanded because the i-Road helps me go anywhere easily.”
With these trials, Toyota’s goal is to study the best ways to develop its products and services not only for the i-Road, but also for the future of mobility.
The progress of this project will be published regularly on a specially established web page.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.