{"id":18398,"date":"2016-04-14T17:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T21:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=18398"},"modified":"2016-04-14T17:00:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T21:00:22","slug":"i-nnovative-toyota-i-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/i-nnovative-toyota-i-road","title":{"rendered":"i-nnovative Toyota i-Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"iRoad_payne\"<\/p>\n

If buses, cabs and autonomous vehicles aren\u2019t interactive enough for you, Toyota wants you to meet its i-Road three-wheeler. Part Jet Ski, part motorbike, part car, this sci-fi prototype from Toyota aims to explore the ride-share market frontier.<\/p>\n

Like something out of the movie \u201cTron,\u201d the two-door, battery-powered pod cuts through traffic like a motorscooter while offering the enclosed protection of a car. Just three feet wide and seven feet long, i-Road can be shoehorned into the tightest of urban parking sports.<\/p>\n

Toyota gave i-Road demonstration rides at the SAE 2016 World Congress and Exhibition show in Detroit this week. Already on the streets in select Japanese and French cities, the i-Road would turn heads slashing through downtown Detroit traffic \u2014 but will likely make its debut in California cities where ride-share programs are common and where the electric i-Road can gain credits against the state\u2019s draconian zero-emission regulations.<\/p>\n

While other ride-sharing programs such as Zip Car,\u00a0Car2Go<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0BMW\u2019s ReachNow<\/a>use existing production vehicles like Smart Fortwos and BMW i3s, i-Road is unusual as a vehicle specifically targeted at the ride-share market. Although Bollore, a Paris ride-share company, began its \u201cBlueIndy\u201d\u00a0service in Indianapolis, Indiana last fall using its own electric Bluecars<\/a>\u00a0developed by Italy\u2019s Pininfarina.<\/p>\n

Toyota\u2019s three-wheeler was developed in Japan by a Toyota \u201cskunk works\u201d team tasked to create engaging vehicles like the Toyota 86 (formerly the Scion FR-S) sports car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make ride-sharing fun to drive,\u201d says California-based engineer Christopher Gregg, 36, who is developing the i-Road for the U.S. market. \u201cIt can really take a curve and delivers great maneuverability through city streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Built with lightweight, carbon fiber-reinforced plastic on a steel chassis, the 660-pound i-Road (which, with its single locomotive-style headlight, resembles a Smart car smashed in a Panini maker) is propelled by lithium-ion batteries in the floor driving twin electric motors on the front wheels. A gyroscope regulates the vehicle\u2019s lean angle and keeps it upright. The drive-by-wire steering system operates the rear wheel for a tight, 10-foot turning radius.<\/p>\n

On a closed track in Cobo Convention Center\u2019s main hall, the i-Road drove like a Jet Ski on wheels \u2014 leaning up to 26 degrees through slaloms and tight turns. The rear-wheel steering, however, lacks the precision of front-wheel steering at its 35-mph limit. Drive it like Tom Cruise in \u201cMission Impossible\u201d and you might wind up like a gnat in the grille of an oncoming Chevy Suburban.<\/p>\n

In more measured driving, however, the gyroscope is particularly adept at sensing slip angle. Stop on a dime in a turn, and the i-Road instantly rotates upright \u2014 unlike a traditional, wobbly tri-wheeler.<\/p>\n

Like BMW\u2019s ReachNow, Toyota\u2019s ride-sharing plans are as flexible as the i-Road is in tight spaces. Download the smartphone app and \u2014 similar to an Uber app \u2014 available i-Roads light up the map. Pick the nearest one, turn it on, drive it by the minute. Then park it at your destination. The i-Road can be charged in three hours with a standard, 110-volt wall socket, and has a range of 30 miles (less in Detroit and other colder climates). The service is in use in Tokyo, Toyota City and Grenoble, France.<\/p>\n

Toyota\u2019s Gregg says the company still is working on the i-Road\u2019s introduction in the U.S. The primary hurdle, he says, is a thicket of government regulation \u2014 for example, whether the car will be classified as a motorcycle (and therefore subject to state helmet laws) or as a so-called \u201cneighborhood electric vehicle\u201d (which would prohibit its use on highways).<\/p>\n

IHS Automotive auto analyst Stephanie Brinley says the i-Road is an ambitious approach to a market that has been created almost overnight by the smartphone app revolution. Where autonomous cars offer the potential of ride-sharing fleets that can move themselves, vehicles like the i-Road offer customers the thrill of driving \u2014 without the overhead of owning a car.<\/p>\n

\u201cAutomakers need to understand how ride-sharing impacts their sales model,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd they need to understand what the needs of the market will be \u2014 and if they can be profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If buses, cabs and autonomous vehicles aren\u2019t interactive enough for you, Toyota wants you to meet its i-Road three-wheeler. Part Jet Ski, part motorbike, part car, this sci-fi prototype from Toyota aims to explore the ride-share market frontier. Like something out of the movie \u201cTron,\u201d the two-door, battery-powered pod cuts through traffic like a motorscooter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18399,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18398\/revisions\/18399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}