Ten drivers have begun a six-month trial of Toyota’s next-generation intelligent transport system.
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The 10 high-mileage drivers will each drive a specially equipped locally-made Camry Grande in the trial.
An Illawarra dealership is the base for the test program, which will contribute to Toyota’s global development of in-car, car-to-base and base-to-car information systems.
In-car information – such as the number of kilometres travelled – will be transmitted by satellite direct to Toyota’s intelligent transport system development team in Australia and relayed to the service department at the dealership, which can then contact the customer at the correct timing for a service.
The 10 drivers trialing the next generation telematics system are all long-term Toyota customers.
They include an electrical engineer, local government engineers, public relations manager, restaurant owner, hardware company owner, storage company owner, bricklaying contractor, building contractor and golf club secretary/manager.
Toyota Australia last October launched its first telematics system, Toyota Link, as standard equipment in top-of-the-range Camry models.
Toyota Australia’s corporate manager, Customer First Division, Barry Budge, said coming generations of telematics systems would provide an even greater range of safety, security and owner convenience functions for private drivers, as well as helping fleets better monitor costs.
“The range of features we launched last October in Toyota Link is itself impressive,” he said.
“For example, safety features include automatic accident notification to the call centre if the system detects deployment of the SRS airbags. “In addition, it has an SRS airbag diagnostic function that constantly monitors the vehicle crash sensors and SRS airbag triggering system.”
Security features include unauthorised entry alert (alarm activated) and stolen vehicle tracking.
In the event of an unauthorised entry incident, the operator will attempt to identify the vehicle occupant as the owner. If the occupant cannot be identified as the owner, the police may be alerted.
If the vehicle is stolen, it can be tracked and the police notified of its location. Convenience functions include remote unlock, low battery alert (for the vehicle’s storage battery) and roadside assistance.
Budge said Toyota has already given a pointer to the automotive e-future with the launch in Japan of a next generation system, known as G-Book.
“G-Book combines live navigation, real-time communication and dial-up services, and is marketed as a total mobility service,” he said.
“Its services include dial-up search for restaurants by cuisine and location, area-specific traffic information and security functions.”
