Toyota Engineers Easier Access for Child Safety Seat Mounts

New Design Results in Improved IIHS Child Safety Rating

Toyota already has more vehicles rated as Top Safety Pick andTop Safety Pick + by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) than any other automaker1, but now they have yet another rating to add to the list of accolades, an IIHS Good+ rating for Child Safety Seat Ease-of-Use.

 

In 2015, IIHS established the LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) rating program to encourage automakers to design LATCH hardware that meets those ease-of-use criteria. While child restraints can be installed properly using vehicle safety belts, LATCH is intended to make correct installation easier.2  Toyota listened to IIHS and took quick action.
 
“We began by going through our North American vehicles one by one, identifying the issues and prioritizing the solutions that had the biggest impact and could be implemented quickly,” said Jennifer Pelky, senior engineer at the Toyota Technical Center and a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. “Some of the biggest challenges we faced were balancing ease-of-use with safety regulation requirements, comfort, and aesthetics.” The dedication of Toyota’s engineers resulted in many of Toyota’s North American vehicles achieving improved ratings.
 
Due to the timing of the LATCH protocol release and the development timing of the Prius, the Toyota seat design team chose to focus on the seat itself, rather than the lower anchor wires to improve usability. The goal of the Toyota designers and engineers was to find a way to make the lower anchors as easy to use as the lower anchors in other “good” rated vehicles, such as the Lexus RX. Ultimately they found that deeper anchors could be as easy to use as closer anchors if the access to them was large enough. Through this activity, the Prius open-access concept was born.  As a result of their efforts to improve ease-of-use, the Toyota Prius received the best rating possible by IIHS—Good+. 

“As a safety engineer and a mother of two young boys, I understand that installing a child safety seat is not always the easiest task,” said Pelky. “I’m proud to have played a role in making that part of parenting a bit easier.”

Do You Know What Your Toyota Indicator Lights Mean?

We have all had it happen to us: we turn on our car and notice a new light lit up on your dash, but we don't know what it means. So, in our hurry, we ignore it and try to forget about it. Mostly because we don't want to take the time to figure out what it means.

So Burien Toyota has created a guide for every dashboard that may light up in your Toyota! Do you need to take your car into Burien Toyota maintenance department if the "BSM" indicator lights up? Yes, you do! Do you know what the exclamation mark indicator means? Get your tire pressure checked!

Find out what all of these and more look like and mean HERE! If any of these light up in your vehicle, call Burien Toyota and we'll get you in as soon as possible.

The Nature of It All

Toyota Donates $1 Million to Help Fund New Yellowstone Youth Campus
Campus Will Be First Regenerative Campus of Living Buildings in a National Park

Online gaming or using social media apps - kids often live in virtual environments.  But kids in Yellowstone National Park will soon have a newliving environment to explore, with help from Toyota. 
 
Today the automaker presented a $1 million donation to the Yellowstone Park Foundation to support development of a new Yellowstone Youth Campus. The new campus will be a home for immersive youth programming in the park, creating a place of learning for future generations of conservationists and a pretty cool hang-out to share experiences.
 
Designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects of Portland, Ore., the new Yellowstone Youth Campus aims to be the first buildings in a national park to achieve Living Building Challenge Certification.  One of the most rigorous environmental building certifications in the world, the Living Building Challenge integrates ecological relationship, cultural heritage, stewardship, sustainability and leadership into all aspects of design, construction and operation.  The result is a “Living Lab” for all who enter. 
 
“The new Yellowstone Youth Campus is an opportunity to support the conservation principles of the National Park Service while reinforcing Toyota’s commitment to the environment,” said Toyota Motor North America Environmental General Manager Kevin Butt.  “We hope this environmental learning center will inspire and empower future leaders in building a more culturally aware, ecologically responsible and regenerative future.”
 
While the campus expands, the environmental footprint is expected to shrink with pursuit of the Living Building Challenge.  The buildings are designed to significantly reduce energy use through high-performance insulation and windows, natural ventilation, and other passive measures. Planned photovoltaic arrays on-site will provide more than 100 percent of campus energy needs, creating excess energy for the grid. One hundred percent of water used on campus will be locally sourced and all wastewater will be treated on-site for reuse. The design prioritizes a healthy indoor environment by using only non-toxic and low VOC building materials and furnishings. Once complete, the campus will serve as a new benchmark for National Park Service projects. 
 
It also will serve as the home of two youth programs, each with a national reach – Expedition Yellowstone and the Youth Conservation Corps. Expedition Yellowstone provides week-long residential experiences for grade school-aged children with a focus on disadvantaged populations, while the Youth Conservation Corps offers a one-month immersive summer program for high-school students. Replacing the existing Youth Conservation Corps campus, the new youth campus will be able to serve twice the current student capacity with the addition of four classrooms, residential buildings and staff housing on-site.
 
This isn’t Toyota’s first footprint in the park. In 2015, Toyota introduced a unique, renewable distributed energy system at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch.  By combining solar power with re-used Camry Hybrid battery packs, the system provides reliable, sustainable, zero emission power to the ranger station and education center for the first time since it was founded in 1907.
 
And when Yellowstone designed the new Old Faithful Visitor Education Center (OFVEC), Toyota engineers shared knowledge gained during construction of its Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified office complex in Torrance, Calif. The automaker also provided a $1 million gift to the foundation for construction of the Center, which opened in 2010. 

Toyota Research Institute Partners with University of Michigan to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence Research

$22 million investment to begin research collaborations focused on autonomous vehicles and advanced robotics projects
 

Research focused on artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous driving at the University of Michigan (U-M) will get a major boost thanks to an initial $22 million commitment from the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), announced today by TRI-CEO Gill Pratt in an address to the U-M faculty.

“Toyota has long enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the University of Michigan, and we are excited to expand our collective efforts to address complex mobility challenges through artificial intelligence,” said Pratt. “We look forward to collaborating with U-M’s research faculty and students to develop new intelligent technologies that will help drivers travel more safely, securely and efficiently. We will also focus on expanding the benefit of mobility technology to in-home support of older persons and those with special needs.”

Under the agreement, TRI will provide an initial $22 million over four years for research collaborations with the U-M faculty in the areas of enhanced driving safety, partner robotics and indoor mobility, autonomous driving and student learning and diversity.
 
Recently, TRI announced the establishment of its new Ann Arbor research facility (TRI-ANN) and the hiring of U-M robotics professors Ryan Eustice and Edwin Olson to support autonomous vehicle research.  Both will retain U-M faculty positions part-time. TRI-ANN is the third TRI facility, joining TRI offices in Palo Alto near Stanford and in Cambridge, near MIT.
 
TRI was drawn to Ann Arbor because of the broad strengths of the university and the region, particularly in areas related to the emergence of high-level driver-assist systems, eventually leading to fully autonomous vehicles. TRI will also be near two well-established Toyota Technical Center campuses.
 
The partnership builds on Toyota’s strong and active presence in the Ann Arbor community. The two offices of the Toyota Technical Center have long worked with U-M on connected vehicles and safety research. Toyota is a founding partner of U-M’s Mobility Transformation Center (MTC), an interdisciplinary public-private research and development initiative that is developing the foundation for a commercially viable ecosystem of connected and automated vehicles.
 
MTC operates Mcity, a unique “mini-city” on a 32-acre site on campus that allows researchers to test emerging vehicle technologies rapidly and rigorously in a safe, controlled environment. In addition, Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center is a major sponsor of research at the U-M Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) focused on advanced safety technologies.  
 
"Our labs at U-M push the envelope of what robots can sense and understand about the world, and TRI provides an opportunity to apply these discoveries into real-world products," said Eustice, associate professor at U-M.  "The challenges that TRI faces with autonomous cars will leverage our labs' research into complex behaviors, like merging and understanding the intention of other vehicles from their actions," added Olson, associate professor at U-M.
 
This collaboration is an effort to leverage robotics to improve quality of life in a variety of ways.
 
“At U-M, we are working closely with partners in industry and government to drive a revolution in connected, automated, and autonomous vehicles that will dramatically enhance the safety and efficiency of moving people and goods,” said S. Jack Hu, vice president for research at U-M. “Our expanding partnership with Toyota will help accelerate progress toward that goal.”
 
As part of this agreement, U-M will issue a broad call for proposals from faculty across the university to address challenges in mobility, safety and home robotics.
 
“For decades, U-M has provided a steady stream of ideas and people to fuel the broad ecosystem of automotive R&D facilities in this region and beyond,” said Alec Gallimore, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering at U-M. “We look forward to working more closely with Toyota to spur a new era of innovation that will have worldwide impact.”

Toyota Financial Services Offers Payment Relief to Customers Affected by Louisiana Flooding

Toyota Financial Services (TFS) announced it is offering payment relief options to its customers affected by the flooding in Louisiana. This broad outreach includes any Toyota Financial Services (TFS) or Lexus Financial Services (LFS) customer in the FEMA designated Louisiana disaster areas. 
 
We at Toyota Financial Services care about the safety and well-being of our customers and want to help those impacted by the storms and flooding.  Impacted lease and retail customers residing in the devastated areas may be eligible to take advantage of several payment relief options, some of which include:

• extensions and lease deferred payments 
• redirecting billing statements
• arranging phone or on-line payments

 
Customers who have been affected by the flooding and would like to discuss their account options are encouraged to contact TFS or LFS:
 
Toyota Financial Services customers may call (800) 874-8822 or contact TFS via email using the Mail Center function after logging into ToyotaFinancial.com.
 
Lexus Financial Services customers may call (800) 874-7050 or contact LFS via email using the Mail Center function after logging into LexusFinancial.com.
 
We extend our heartfelt thoughts to those affected by the natural disaster. 

 

About Toyota Financial Services
TFS is the finance and insurance brand for Toyota in the United States, offering retail auto financing and leasing through Toyota Motor Credit Corporation (TMCC) and Toyota Lease Trust. TFS also offers extended service contracts through Toyota Motor Insurance Services (TMIS). Lexus Financial Services is the brand for financial products for Lexus dealers and customers. TFS currently employs approximately 3,100 associates nationwide, and has assets totaling over $114 billion. It is part of a worldwide network of comprehensive financial services offered by Toyota Financial Services Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation. We announce material financial information using the investor relations section of our website (www.toyotafinancial.com) and SEC filings. We use these channels, press releases, and social media to communicate about our company, our services and other issues. While not all information we post on social media is of a material nature, some information could be material. Therefore, we encourage those interested in our company to review our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/toyotafinancial. 
 
Points of Light has named TFS one of its Civic 50, the most community-minded companies in the nation.  For more information about the company’s support of financial literacy, after-school programs, and other community initiatives, please visit www.tfsinthecommunity.com.

Tenth Annual Lexus Eco Challenge Launches with a Chance to Win $500,000

National STEM Competition Scholarships and Prizes Await…Who Will Be the Next Winning Team?

• Middle and High School Students Eligible
• Lexus and Scholastic Committed to Education and the Environment
• Lexus Eco Challenge Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Over the past nine years, the Lexus Eco Challenge has been changing the lives of students and teachers across the U.S. Students have learned about the environment through hands-on projects, inspired their entire communities to improve the environment globally and   demonstrated their passion for science, technology, engineering and math.  Many have used their prize winnings to continue their schooling and pay for college.  The Lexus Eco Challenge is an excellent opportunity for middle and high school students to help clean the air, water, and land in their neighborhoods and beyond. To learn more about the program visit: http://www.scholastic.com/lexus.

Through this unique program, students will learn about the environment, teamwork and how they can take steps to make their communities better. More than 30,000 middle and high school students have earned over $5 million for themselves, their teachers, and their schools through the Lexus Eco Challenge. 

“The Lexus Eco Challenge has changed the way I teach. It’s changed my classroom, it’s changed the lives of my students, and it’s changed my school — all for the better. This is such a great way to get kids to care about the world around them and not only think about the ‘moment;’ but also think about what a difference they can make,” said JoAnne Brown, Science teacher at Olympus Jr. High School, Holladay, Utah.  Mrs. Brown has had over 600 students participate in improving the environment since 2006.

In its tenth year, the Lexus Eco Challenge is an educational program and contest for students across the U.S. in grades 6-12 that inspires and empowers young people to learn about the environment and take action to improve it.  The program is now open for registration and students are invited to participate for a chance to win part of $500,000 in prizes and scholarships. 

Lexus and Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, have joined together to create this popular and successful STEM program.

Teams of students can enter both of the first two challenges, which are focused on Land & Water and Air & Climate.  This year, the Land & Water Challenge will run first, Aug. 15-Oct. 16, followed by the Air & Climate Challenge, Oct. 19-Dec. 12.  Winners from each challenge are then invited to go on to participate in the Final Challenge, Jan. 16 - Feb. 27, 2017 with a top prize of $30,000 for both the winning middle and high school teams.
 
The Challenge Elements

1. The Lexus Eco Challenge also includes supplemental educational materials created and distributed by Scholastic that support standards-based skills and encourage teachers to integrate creative lesson plans about the environment into their classrooms.  For each challenge, the website (www.scholastic.com/lexus) has lesson plans and teacher instructions, including questions to help guide a discussion about the current challenge topic, facts about the topic and guidelines for a specific classroom project.
2. Competition to reward environmental action helps young people apply what they’ve learned in class through the program and empowers them to make improvements in their community by participating in the eco-focused team challenges.

The Challenge Rewards
The Lexus Eco Challenge registration is open now for the Land & Water Challenge and will conclude on Oct. 17, 2016.  Middle and high school teams, comprised of five to ten students and one to two teacher advisor(s), are invited to define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report on the results.  The first-place and grand-prize-winning teams will be announced in November 2016 for the Land & Water Challenge, while Air & Climate Challenge winners will be announced in January 2017.

Each of the challenges will have 16 winning teams – eight middle school and eight high school teams.  The winning teams will each receive a total of $10,000 in scholarships and prizes to be shared among the students, teacher and school.  In addition, the winning action plans will be featured on a special webpage to inspire other students to take action in their communities.

The winning teams from the first two challenges will be invited to participate in the Final Challenge.  Teams will be asked to reach beyond the local community and inspire environmental action around the world through innovative ideas that are communicated to a wide audience.

From the Final Challenge entries, eight first-place teams and two grand-prize-winning teams will be selected.  Each of the eight first-place teams will receive a total of $15,000 in prizes and scholarships, and the two grand-prize-winning teams will each receive $30,000. The money will be shared by the students, their teacher advisors and their schools.

Teachers are encouraged to visit http://www.scholastic.com/lexus to learn how they can take part and to review the Official Rules.  The Lexus Eco Challenge is open to students in grades 6-12 who are enrolled in a public or accredited private school or who are schooled at home in compliance with the laws of the students' primary state of residence and who are legal residents of the United States (one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia) by law.  Only a teacher advisor (not a student) may submit an entry on behalf of a team. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.

Lexus’ Environmental Efforts
Lexus is the luxury hybrid leader with six low-emission hybrid vehicles available. When Lexus began selling hybrids in 2005, it helped advance the concept of sustainability without sacrifice.  The Lexus Eco Challenge is part of The Lexus Pursuit of Potential, a philanthropic initiative that generates up to $3 million in donations each year for organizations that help build, shape and improve children’s lives.

Team Spirit Tops Podium in New National Toyota Campaign

Toyota and Saatchi Join Hands in New Work to Support Spirit of Competition

What do skydivers, Toyota team members and world-class athletes Summer Sanders and Amy Purdy have in common? Teamwork.

Toyota is encouraging people to come together in the spirit of friendship and fair play through the simple act of holding hands in a new ad campaign, “Stand Together.” In addition to broadcast, the campaign will use outdoor advertising and social media elements to create an uplifting message around the teamwork theme.

Developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, the campaign will launch with a :60 spot on NBC’s Olympic Opening Ceremonies broadcast Aug. 5. The ad features people across the world, from Toyota team members to skydivers to Team Toyota athletes Sanders and Purdy joining hands and celebrating teamwork. Set to the track of The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin',” the spot communicates Toyota’s commitment to mobility that facilitates shared experiences.

A special :90 online-only, extended cut version of the spot can be watched on Toyota’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lak6y1S9gM0&feature=youtu.be

“Teamwork is ingrained in Toyota’s DNA – it’s a founding principle,” said Jack Hollis, group vice president of marketing, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. “We believe, as our founder did, in the ‘power of togetherness’ and athletics is an amazing example of the power of teamwork. While we do not compete at the highest levels of sport on the playing field, we celebrate the spirit of collaboration every day, whether it is within the walls of Toyota, or in our interaction with our guests.”

The commercial also includes a call to action. For every person who creates a video of people joining hands and shares it using the campaign hashtag, #LetsJoinHands, Toyota will donate $20 to United Way, up to $250,000. In addition, Toyota will mix content from user and influencer submissions into pre-roll and social videos, continuously delivering fresh edits throughout the media run.

A prominent portion of the campaign will be the #LetsJoinHands outdoor touchboard installations that combine live video feeds with real-time collaborative drawing tools to create a connective engagement between New York City’s Herald Square and Los Angeles’ Hollywood and Highland from August 12-14. Users have the opportunity to email or tweet video captures of their drawing sessions directly from the screens. An advanced cloud-based rendering engine automatically generates highlight reels featuring users' digital drawings, suited to social sharing. The touchboards aim to capture the magic of the engagement while immortalizing these fleeting, yet genuine connections and collaborations.

“Toyota is a brand that is founded on the power of movement and over the decades has enabled people to move forward and explore. The “Stand Together” campaign is a reflection of the physical and emotional places we can go and the goals we can achieve together. By giving people a chance to engage with technology and people in unexpected ways, the campaign extends and redefines what it means to join hands and we hope to start a conversation around teamwork,” said Fabio Costa, executive creative director, Saatchi LA.

Team Spirit Tops Podium in New National Toyota Campaign

Toyota and Saatchi Join Hands in New Work to Support Spirit of Competition

What do skydivers, Toyota team members and world-class athletes Summer Sanders and Amy Purdy have in common? Teamwork.

Toyota is encouraging people to come together in the spirit of friendship and fair play through the simple act of holding hands in a new ad campaign, “Stand Together.” In addition to broadcast, the campaign will use outdoor advertising and social media elements to create an uplifting message around the teamwork theme.

Developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, the campaign will launch with a :60 spot on NBC’s Olympic Opening Ceremonies broadcast Aug. 5. The ad features people across the world, from Toyota team members to skydivers to Team Toyota athletes Sanders and Purdy joining hands and celebrating teamwork. Set to the track of The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin',” the spot communicates Toyota’s commitment to mobility that facilitates shared experiences.

A special :90 online-only, extended cut version of the spot can be watched on Toyota’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lak6y1S9gM0&feature=youtu.be

“Teamwork is ingrained in Toyota’s DNA – it’s a founding principle,” said Jack Hollis, group vice president of marketing, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. “We believe, as our founder did, in the ‘power of togetherness’ and athletics is an amazing example of the power of teamwork. While we do not compete at the highest levels of sport on the playing field, we celebrate the spirit of collaboration every day, whether it is within the walls of Toyota, or in our interaction with our guests.”

The commercial also includes a call to action. For every person who creates a video of people joining hands and shares it using the campaign hashtag, #LetsJoinHands, Toyota will donate $20 to United Way, up to $250,000. In addition, Toyota will mix content from user and influencer submissions into pre-roll and social videos, continuously delivering fresh edits throughout the media run.

A prominent portion of the campaign will be the #LetsJoinHands outdoor touchboard installations that combine live video feeds with real-time collaborative drawing tools to create a connective engagement between New York City’s Herald Square and Los Angeles’ Hollywood and Highland from August 12-14. Users have the opportunity to email or tweet video captures of their drawing sessions directly from the screens. An advanced cloud-based rendering engine automatically generates highlight reels featuring users' digital drawings, suited to social sharing. The touchboards aim to capture the magic of the engagement while immortalizing these fleeting, yet genuine connections and collaborations.

“Toyota is a brand that is founded on the power of movement and over the decades has enabled people to move forward and explore. The “Stand Together” campaign is a reflection of the physical and emotional places we can go and the goals we can achieve together. By giving people a chance to engage with technology and people in unexpected ways, the campaign extends and redefines what it means to join hands and we hope to start a conversation around teamwork,” said Fabio Costa, executive creative director, Saatchi LA.