- Hey guys, this is Austin, and welcome to Tokyo.
So Toyota were awesome enough to sponsor a trip out here
to Japan to take a look at some of the stuff
they have to show at the Tokyo Motor Show.
Now one of the more interesting things that's been shown here
is the brand new Mirai Concept.
Now the Mirai is Toyota's fully hydrogen powered vehicle.
I've gotta say it looks absolutely incredible,
I mean seriously just look at this thing.
Now while they may call this a concept,
as far as I'm concerned, this looks very much
production ready, and in fact,
it should be going on sale late 2020.
Now if you guys are not familiar with the Mirai,
it is a hydrogen powered vehicle
which actually has been around for a few years.
In fact, I actually went to the launch event
for it a few years ago.
So unlike an electric car, this entirely relies
on hydrogen which does have some major advantages.
As opposed to pretty much any sort of
battery electric vehicle which will need
20, 30 minutes, an hour or more to charge,
this can be completely refueled in just a couple of minutes.
Pretty much like a gassed powered car, gas powered car.
Gas powered car.
You've got a 10.2 inch display here,
as well as there is a heads up display,
which isn't on right now.
Look I've got a little H2O button,
I'm not sure, what does the H2O button do?
- It really ejects the water man.
- I'm just imagine this is like the cool version
of shooting flames.
You just like shoot water instead.
(laughing)
Toyota also has a series of BEV's
or battery electric vehicles.
Now the interesting thing about what's going on right now
especially in the car industry and specifically with Toyota
is that instead of being just a pure car company,
Toyota's turning into a mobility company.
Now what that means is that they're working
on a wide range of different mobility solutions
everything from cars, all the way down to something
that you would consider to be be like maybe not a scooter,
but not too far off.
Now this is the Ultra Compact BEV from Toyota,
even though this is the Ultra Compact version,
it's actually the biggest of the BEV's that they have here.
This is meant to carry two passengers.
It's actually surprisingly cool although something
that I'm a little more excited to try is the iROAD.
Dude it's so cool.
All right, I'm in the iROAD.
So what's really bizarre about this,
it's got three wheels and, whoa,
so like the entire thing like rotates?
I don't know how to describe it.
Okay, so I'm about to take my first corner,
thank you, and it feels like I'm drifting, what?
(laughing)
Whoa, let's full throttle.
Oh dude.
(laughing)
That's awesome, that is so much cooler.
It feels like you're drifting the whole time.
Typically one of the more interesting things here
is the Toyota LQ.
Now this is actually a hybrid between a concept car,
and a final production vehicle.
So originally, this was known as the Concept-i
We actually took at it a little while ago.
However, this is a car which is actually going to be hitting
the streets of Tokyo by next summer.
The idea is that this is sort of a...
That was a lot of people in suits.
Now this thing is loaded with
very future looking technology.
So not only do they intend
to put solid state batteries in this
which should be a huge leap from
any kind of battery technology that we have today.
But on top of that,
it also does have things like OLED screens inside.
You have a lot of AR functionality with the heads up display
to really kind of give you
a very detailed look at the world.
The idea here very much is
this is a vehicle which you can drive
but is also a vehicle which can drive you around
and it's sort of that mix which makes it very interesting.
The LQ should be capable of Level 4 autonomous driving,
which means that it really can do most of the driving
although it does of course still have a steering wheel
if you'd like to do it yourself.
Now one of the interesting things here is that
this is not really meant to replace you as a driver.
Right?
There's a lot of features here which will
enhance your driving experience.
We're very quickly moving into a world
where driverless cars, autonomous vehicles
are going to be commonplace.
And I think that a real challenge with
the entire auto industry is
why do you care?
Right?
I mean, if I'm looking at a Supra.
I'm excited, right?
Like it's a passionate thing.
I can really, I have a bond with it.
I care.
When it comes to an autonomous vehicle,
I think there's a real danger in that,
why would you care, right?
Who cares what car manufacturer makes it?
Who cares what model?
You're just gonna get in it,
it's gonna take you from point A to point B.
It's very much utility.
I think that's something that Toyota's very much trying
to focus on and make something which is actually passionate,
which is actually exciting, which is actually something
that you want to buy and you want to drive every day.
Or you want to drive you.
There is a huge change coming
to the automotive industry right now.
With autonomous vehicles impending in the next few years,
in the next decade or so,
you gotta think that a lot of people aren't gonna be
interested in buying cars the way they have in the past,
right?
I mean if the car is utility,
if the vehicle is something which can actually be useful,
even when you're not using it, right?
So a lot of people, Toyota included,
seem to be interested in the idea that
some of these vehicles might be used as like, a delivery van
or a taxi or something when you're not using it.
I mean, there's a huge shift coming
and I think the idea that Toyota has shifted
into becoming a mobility company is a huge part of that,
right?
You can't just make cars forever
because things are changing
and they're changing in a big, big way.