This video might rank up there with Katrina & The Waves’ “Walking On Sunshine” when it comes to putting the viewer in a good mood. Toyota does the honors by showing off a quartet of its all-electric i-Road concept vehicles literally sashaying through what appears to be a French seaside town in glorious digital effect style.
Narrow roads, stone streets, windy oceanside drives and traffic congestion are no match for these happy little vehicles, which are 850 millimeters wide (that’s 33.4 inches to you and me, about as wide as a baseball bat is long). If you were wondering how the concept sways back and forth, it’s because of what the Japanese automaker calls its “Active Lean” technology. Note how the fenders move up and down through the turns. “iRoll, iRock, i-Road” indeed.
A little more range than 30 miles and hopefully, a reasonable price – and I’d consider buying one. We have only one fuel-affordable vehicle in my immediate family and it ain’t my pickup truck. :)
Overlaying a map of snow fall on NA and Europe seems to make this a less than usefull vehical for the majority of the population for atleast a 1/3 of the year…
Put a mini-gun on it like the last thread to make it more user friendly.
Hell ya!
It’s funny how the arrogance factor goes up the more we cage ourselves in our vehicles. Add a little weaponry to the mix and it might do wonders for traffic congestion – not to mention, road rage!
What happens when this vehicle meets the more numerous and larger car on the road? Looks like a scooter with a roof, nice idea but a death trap.
Sounds like you don’t ride. Or maybe you’re just not familiar with the BMW C1:
http://motorcycles.about.com/od/motorcycleeventgalleries/ig/Euro-Bikes/Commute-Scoot-in-Action.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_C1
Great for good weather asphalt riding but probably not so great if you live on Alaska’s northern slope during the winter months.
I’ve seen the results of a motorcycle verse car, the car wins. I’m all for efficient, but for day to day commuting I prefer the safety of a vehicle that has a chance against the other vehicles on the road.
So bigger and bigger gas guzzlers then?
Are you sure it isn’t more of a penis envy issue and not so much a safety thing?
Don’t get me wrong! Your argument about cars winning any kind of physical encounter over a bike are quite convincing. But considering how many cars that are hit by trains each year are you really sure THAT’S the argument you want to use?
Last I checked, I drive a car (not an SUV btw) on the road not on railroad tracks. Chances of being hit by a train would be a lot lower than being run over by a car riding a small bike. Like I said, I’d love to be able to ride something small and fuel efficient but it just isn’t safe.
US, with your logic; you should be driving a Hummer! Be safe…. but pay for it!
The iTaxi in yellow comes to mind …
@eideard Solution for “fuel affordable vehicle” is NOT crap. Solution is sustained effort to produce as much fossil fuels at as low cost as possible while letting other technologies grow up in proper stages (same as gasoline powered car, electric or whatever else one must start as expensive toy for the rich and gain market share on its own merits). Your pickup should be fuel affordable in a normal free market, one that is not driven by ideological irrational regulations.
USA own known gas reserves are at least equal to 1000 year of present day level usage. Other forms of propulsion have plenty of time to grow up and become competitive on their own.
Like the nuclear power industry?
If so, then can you please tell me why they won’t make thorium reactors? Reactors that produce a whole lot less radiation and can’t be used to weaponize bombs! Check it out:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=AptxNrQpGA4&list=PLmfHXd2JV9gUVcb2rwKy4lHzoFW2aWNvx&index=17
Now, let’s consider an even bigger industry; the petroleum industry. And industry which you seem to be saying needs to find better and cheaper ways to produce gas. My question is, why gas?! Isn’t it “inside the box” thinking like that which has screwed things up to the point where we’re now looking for alternatives?
One reason: Uranium mines would lose value. Australia has 30% of the world’s reserve. The U.S. nuclear industry is getting a big rival for the future with cheap natural gas plants.
They’re so hideous they’re cute!
You want hideous?! How about a little less safe, under powered, and on 2 smaller wheels too? Check out the BMW C1:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_C1
Well, for a motorcycle, that actually isn’t bad. But I assume, like nearly all motorcycles, it makes as much noise as a 747, so to hell with it, and its ilk.
Strictly all-electric battery-powered. There is no sound from exhaust pipes.
Like cars aren’t sometimes loud?
Speaking as a biker, I have “loud” pipes so that people stay away or at least ALERT whenever I’m nearby. It’s saved me more than once since nothing short of a 500-pound air horn will wake some of them up and get them to do what they have chosen to do – drive!
And when I ride, I also like to be as obnoxious to everyone in their little portable living rooms (which I call a cage) cause I’m kind of an ass hole too!
It’s unfortunate that noise pollution is used as an alert.
Distracted drivers are a more of a problem. Also, seeing-eye dogs have trouble detecting all-electric vehicles, at least in 2004.
Why is it that the same people that claim to use loud pipes to “alert” drivers to the their presence (for “safety”) are also often the ones without a helmet.
I like it. Looks like fun.
Sounds like Toyota is trying to become the next Honda, Suzuki, BMW or someone. Funny how there are no American manufacturers in the mix. Ford, GM, Chrysler and even Harley Davidson are probably all laughing right now.
Still, I wouldn’t mind riding/driving (?) one of these things. But doing it in the snow?!?! 3 wheels may be just enough stability but take away the weight an average car has, hit a patch of ice and you may be wishing for wings for the short time you will be airborne. It could also be why they never show case these things in winter conditions too. After all, the whole point of enclosing a motorcycle is to get the rider/driver out of the elements.
Love it! Kinda like skiiing. I’d get one but where do I put the gun rack?
Outstanding idea for an enclosed, all-weather, all-season (maybe not snowy/icy roads), commuter vehicle; and yes, very good CGI, not REAL vehicles. Too bad Toyota could not take the time, effort, and resources to actually make and film REAL vehicles in everyday situations. Especially, the i-Road’s unique features of being able to lane-split in congested city traffic, using HOV lanes on freeways, and keeping the driver/passenger DRY and COMFORTABLE in rainy and snowy weather! Too bad the Top Speed is only 28mph and Range of 30 miles; if they could go 50-70 mph and have a range of 100 miles (at a reasonable price)…. they could RULE the commuter vehicle World!
They’d have the advantage of helping to reduce the number of commuters on the road, every time one of these loses control we’re down one more driver. After all, the best way to solve global climate change is to reduce population, knock off a billion or so and the problem goes away.
Too slow for the HOV (car pool lane) lane on a freeway. Maybe bike paths.
CGI in some shots?
Toyota would have to beef up the “Active Lean” technology for our American “not so lean” bodies.
The Owasso Pulse is way cooler
They laughed at the Prius.
Some of us still do laugh at the Prius. Sure, it’s efficient, but it still looks like a wormy dog dragging its butt across the carpet.
I recently view several photos of people that had road rash all the way into the bone and my willingness to end up in the same condition was substantially reduced. If that makes me a chicken then I’m a fat old rooster.
the potholes here could swallow one of these with ease…
😛
This 3-wheeled vehicle is not a car. It won’t undergo U.S. Federal crash tests.
The Renault Twizy was Europe’s biggest selling electric vehicle last year. The Twizy is a 4-wheeled electric “quadcycle”. It looks like a golf cart. The Twizy can seat 2 people- one behind the other.
That’s not France! That’s Italy!
(Hint: look at the walls of the houses…)
>:)
Hell yeah! I want one. Bets the fuck out of a motorized wheel-chair.