I was in an auto accident on Sunday night of this week.
My car, a wonderful 2006 Toyota Prius that I had taken to calling "Hirohito," is totaled.
My brother was in the passenger's front seat of Hirohito -- I was driving. We were hit on my side of the car (it was the fault of the idiot who ran the red light driving south on Enfield Street -- thanks idiot!), and any chance I might have had to avoid Idiot was eliminated by the huge pile of snow on that corner, cutting off my chance to see anything other than the fact that I had the blooming green light.
Other motorists who saw it stopped to be sure we were okay and stayed to tell the police what they had seen. Which was of course good for me, and good of them. Thanks guys!
If Idiot had been about a half-second slower I could be dead now. He crashed into my car right at the front left side tire, just in front of the driver's-side door and me.
Then idiot pulled to the side of the road, wandered back toward me, and said, "Hey, I had the green light!" On what friggin' planet, Idiot???
Anyway, I'm fine. My brother needed a little medical attention to his knee, but under the circumstances, he's fine too. And what's a car I had owned and made payments on for four and a half years? Only a material thing. Not like I should be resentful or anything.
Such is life on the third rock from the sun.
Showing posts with label Toyota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toyota. Show all posts
04 February 2011
25 February 2010
Toyota's electronics
I imagine that there are different possible ways of transliterating Japanese characters into the Western alphabet, and that at some point in recent history the "Toyoda" family went one way while the company that shares their name, "Toyota," went the other. Here's what a blogger says, but of course you will take it with the proverbial grain of salt.
At any rate, the testimony of Akio Toyodo, and of other high-ranking Toyota execs, was the center ring of yesterday's Congressional circus. This isn't a policy inquiry: more like a public shaming.
I have to say that, in accord with some of the members of the House committee involved, I have some curiosity as to whether this is a software problem. Toyota seems convinced it is a mechanical matter -- sticky gas pedals and so forth. But there is a lot of software involved in cars nowadays, and in particular there is a lot involved in the act of braking a hybrid.
There is (a) the software that does the pumping for you, making for anti-lock brakes, and (b) the software involved in converting the energy exerted in braking into electrical energy, thus re-charging the batteries, and (c) the software involved in the anti-slip. I suspect it is possible that these systems are interacting in some unexpected way in the few cases that have caused all the furor.
At any rate, the testimony of Akio Toyodo, and of other high-ranking Toyota execs, was the center ring of yesterday's Congressional circus. This isn't a policy inquiry: more like a public shaming.
I have to say that, in accord with some of the members of the House committee involved, I have some curiosity as to whether this is a software problem. Toyota seems convinced it is a mechanical matter -- sticky gas pedals and so forth. But there is a lot of software involved in cars nowadays, and in particular there is a lot involved in the act of braking a hybrid.
There is (a) the software that does the pumping for you, making for anti-lock brakes, and (b) the software involved in converting the energy exerted in braking into electrical energy, thus re-charging the batteries, and (c) the software involved in the anti-slip. I suspect it is possible that these systems are interacting in some unexpected way in the few cases that have caused all the furor.
12 October 2007
Advertising on XBox
Yesterday's New York Times ran a fascinating business story about Toyota's movement into the video game world.
It isn't selling the games. It is selling itself within the games. Advertising -- or more strictly, product placement -- has come to the world of the Xbox.
The Times' story starts with a new Toyota Yaris which "has a giant tentacle that reaches out of its roof to shoot enemies as it races through a futuristic tunnel, sometimes within inches of soaring fireballs," and is the central character in the new Xbox game, also accordingly called Yaris.
This may be the best pop cultural thing to happen to Toyota iun the US since South Park portrayed the owners of its Prius as impossibly smug people whose self-satisfaction may result in meteorological disaster.
Actually, it might be an even better bit of product placement than that.
The Yaris (not the model with the robotic tentacle, though) is BTW a real car. It was introduced in Europe in 1999 and in America in the spring of last year.
The 2007 models come as a three-door hatchback ($10,950), a basic four-door sedan ($11,825), or a sportier sedan, $13,325).
Although advertising through video games isn't entirely new, (advertisers will spend $502 million on such deals this year, the NYT story says) it does appear to still be new to the automobile business. And another case where Toyota has stolen a march on its US based counterparts.
It isn't selling the games. It is selling itself within the games. Advertising -- or more strictly, product placement -- has come to the world of the Xbox.
The Times' story starts with a new Toyota Yaris which "has a giant tentacle that reaches out of its roof to shoot enemies as it races through a futuristic tunnel, sometimes within inches of soaring fireballs," and is the central character in the new Xbox game, also accordingly called Yaris.
This may be the best pop cultural thing to happen to Toyota iun the US since South Park portrayed the owners of its Prius as impossibly smug people whose self-satisfaction may result in meteorological disaster.
Actually, it might be an even better bit of product placement than that.
The Yaris (not the model with the robotic tentacle, though) is BTW a real car. It was introduced in Europe in 1999 and in America in the spring of last year.
The 2007 models come as a three-door hatchback ($10,950), a basic four-door sedan ($11,825), or a sportier sedan, $13,325).
Although advertising through video games isn't entirely new, (advertisers will spend $502 million on such deals this year, the NYT story says) it does appear to still be new to the automobile business. And another case where Toyota has stolen a march on its US based counterparts.
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