Toyota Concept-i: More Like Concept AI
The Toyota Concept-i is a car with personality—literally. Besides being equipped with typical concept-car features such as scissor-hinged doors and the ability to drive itself, the Concept-i sports an artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to spark a relationship with the vehicle’s owner. Think of the Concept-i as the vehicular equivalent of the brand’s Kirobo Mini robot currently sold in Japan.
Equipped with sensors to measure both the driver’s emotions and attention, the Concept-i can also keep tabs on the current geographic location and associated road conditions. As such, the cab-forward concept car is able to dynamically adjust the amount of autonomous intervention it deems necessary to assist the driver. Toyota still sees humans opting to participate in the act of driving, so the Concept-i includes a steering wheel, an accelerator, and a brake pedal.
Designed at Toyota’s Calty Design Research Center in Newport Beach, California, and unveiled at the 2017 CES technology show in Las Vegas, the Concept-i exists primarily to demonstrate its user interface, nicknamed Yui. This system is able to display messages on the Concept-i’s bodywork: the front end of the car shows the current drive mode (automated or manual), the exterior door panels include written greetings to those entering the cabin (such as “Hello!” in whatever language you speak), and the rear end can display a number of vital messages for those driving behind the Concept-i (including “Watch out!”).
Similarly, Yui makes its way into the Concept-i’s interior, displaying critical information across the car’s dashboard and communicating messages via sound and touch. A head-up display keeps things inside the driver’s sightline, while lights in the floor change colors based on the car’s drive mode.
For all its attention to user experience, Toyota made no mention whatsoever about a powertrain for this vehicle—not a crucial consideration, evidently. Regardless, Toyota claims it actually plans to test the Concept-i—or, more likely, its AI systems—in Japan in the coming years. This probably won’t be the last we hear of Yui, although a quick search suggests Toyota may run into conflicts with the names of an existing open-source software tool—the Yahoo! User Interface—and that of a Japanese singer-songwriter.
