Suffering from a rash? Drive a Toyota.
That could well be Toyota Motor Corp.’s next slogan, if the world’s second-largest automaker succeeds in offering cars with a medicated cloth seat cover designed to help heal rashes.
“It’s important for us to continue to push this envelope,” Jim Press, president of Toyota’s U.S. division, told the Reuters Autos Summit on Thursday, referring to a host of features being developed to enhance the driving experience.
Press said Toyota is hopeful that the new cloth and other technical innovations in interiors may come to market “in a year or two,” adding that the carmaker is talking to vendors about partnerships.
“I think innovation will be key to determining success of new products,” Press said. “It will no longer be good enough to just have new products.”
Toyota is also looking at a steering wheel that could help diabetics by allowing them to measure their blood sugar levels by simply gripping the wheel.
Taking that a step further, the wheel, in conjunction with other technology, will also be able to gauge a driver’s temperament and blood pressure, adjusting the color of the headlights on the car to warn others of the driver’s mental state.
“It would give other drivers on the road a signal on which cars they must stay away from,” Press said. “It will be a few more years before consumers see this technology in the market,” he added.
Toyota, Japan’s largest automaker, is also refining its interior electronics to give consumers access to news, music, playlists from iPod digital music players, traffic and other information -- even movies on demand -- through a single source in the car that will use satellite technology.
Several top executives at U.S. automakers such as General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have also stressed the importance of more sophisticated car interiors at the summit this week, but they refused to disclose details on their plans.
