Toyota Creates Freedom of Mobility in Wheelchairs

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 are less than two years away, and Toyota is ready for the event with a new mobility concept that is poised to be the foundation of these games. The focus of this concept will be mobility, environmental sustainability, and transportation of support staff.

Mobility, to Toyota, amounts to freedom to move, which is why Toyota is so keen to ensure that unfettered access is available to everyone present at this gaming event.

In an effort to achieve this goal, the company is working with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee. During this mega sporting event, Toyota is financing freedom of mobility with the goal of making these games the most innovative in history. The games will also be historic for the fact that this will be the second time a city has hosted both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games.

According to Akio Toyoda, Toyota President, participation in society centers around freedom of mobility. The company has committed itself to ensuring that no one is prevented from participating out of mobility challenges.

As far as the company is concerned, mobility issues should bring about possibilities at this event, not challenges. The company, according to its president, would also like to demonstrate and grow its acceptance of uniqueness and diversity within society.

The end goal for the company is “mobility for all” because it believes that offering this mobility is equivalent to giving someone a chance to make a dream come true.

The desire by Toyota to help IOC and the IPC handle its mobility issues began some years ago in 2015 when it became the first worldwide mobility partner for these global sporting organizations. The company aims at ensuring that no discrimination occurs through sports, with the belief that a more sustainable society can be created through enhanced mobility.

The company also sees the need to improve mobility as a societal responsibility. That is why it launched the “Start Your Impossible” initiative in 2017 so that people from all sections of society could challenge existing limits on mobility.

On its part, the company will offer vehicles, mobility services and even mobility support products such as robots.

Toyota’s mobility support will cover three broad areas:

1. Mobility for All

To meet this responsibility, the company will ensure that all people, even those with disabilities, have the freedom to move during the Tokyo 2020 games. To accomplish this, the company will offer automated driving vehicles that will be operated within specified areas.

The company will also introduce the “TOYOTA Concept-i”, which will recognize a driver’s emotions and make an appropriate conversation through its AI program.

Toyota will also offer Mobility as a Service (MaaS) through e-Palette, a battery electric vehicle for transporting athletes and guests around the Athlete’s Village.

Last mile mobility needs will also be addressed with the help of WelCab vehicles. Also, the JPN Taxi will be available within the city to welcome guests, while the Toyota I-ROAD will be used by working support staff such as security officers.

2. Sustainability

To this end, Toyota will offer 3,000 passenger vehicles with latest environmental and safety technologies. The company will have in place zero emissions electric vehicles.

In addition to the fuel cell buses, the company will have battery electric vehicles and vehicles for official use that will have technologies to prevent collisions common in parking lots. Under the sustainability goal, the company will also have an automated driving vehicle for hands-off highway driving.

3. Games Official Transportation

This transportation will come through Toyota Production System designed to ensure safety and effectiveness for those moving between sporting venues. 

When many cities decide to host major sporting events, they face mobility challenges within the venues themselves and around the cities where the sporting events are taking place.

Some of these challenges include traffic congestion, traffic accidents, air pollution, and additional challenges for people with disabilities. Toyota seeks to change this with the Tokyo 2020 games as well as the Beijing 2022 and the Paris 2024 games. So far, Toyota’s role as the official worldwide mobility partner for the IOC and the IPC is off to a great start.