Kotaku Australia » toyota

Brain Age Creator Creating Intelligent Toyotas

Mike Fahey — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:30:55 +0000

Professor Ryuta Kawashima is the master of brain training. Having trained the brains of millions of gamers, he has now taken the next logical step – training the brains of Toyotas. Toyota and Kawashima are currently together on various technologies to help older drivers drive safely. Technologies such as intelligent systems that monitor a driver’s behavior in order to curb dangerous behavior, such as sudden increases or decreases in speed, falling asleep at the wheel, or getting in the car in the first place.

“We envision future cars will be able to monitor brain and emotional activity to back up elderly drivers,” said Kawashima, a Tohoku University scientist who worked on Nintendo Co.’s best-selling “Brain Age” games _ and whose smiling image is the guide in the series.

While I am all for promoting driving safety, I just don’t know about helping the elderly drive longer. I respect the elderly. I have some of the elderly in my family. I just think there is a certain point where you have to resign yourself that you can no longer safely operate a vehicle. I know Kawashima’s heart is in the right place, but age happens.

Kawashima hopes to extend the technology towards all ages of drivers in the future.

“Ultimately, we hope to develop cars that stimulate brain activity, so that driving itself becomes a form of brain training,” Kawashima said.

Brain training and driving? He’s obviously never driven through downtown Atlanta on a Friday night. There ain’t no brains to train here, professor.

Toyota and brain-game professor to develop cars for the elderly [The Sydney Morning Herald via Gizmodo AU]

Yaris Free Running To Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:40:25 +0000

Yaris the car is the fuel-efficient Toyota Echo replacement that’s designed for girls. Yaris the game is a free Xbox Live Arcade “advergame” that will let players drive the titular automobiles through all sorts of (eight) different tracks. How’s it look? Free! I can only assume it plays “Free!” as well, as the download doesn’t go live on Marketplace until this Wednesday.

Unlike a real Yaris, the virtual version comes equipped with a scary mechanised phallus under the hood that will let you shoot giant 8-balls, bike-riding sumo, and hover toasters. Here are some ellipses to illustrate speechless-ness.

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Yaris [Xbox.com]

World of Warcraft/Toyota Tacoma Commercial

Flynn De Marco — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:30:00 +0000

There are no trucks in World of Warcraft? Well, There are now. The latest Toyota Tacoma commercial is set in the WoW universe and surprisingly it’s actually pretty funny. I’m not a WoW-er myself, but I still got a kick out of it. In my mind I just mentally replace WoW with D&D and it’s sort of the same thing.

If you’d like to see a better quality version of the video just without the Toyota tag at the end, make the jump.