Toyota's next-generation personal mobility "i-Road" Choi ride repo

At the Tokyo Motor Show 2013 Toyota booth, we set up an area within the premises to develop next-generation personal mobility "I-Road"We are planning to run a demonstration run. This time, I had a chance to test-ride specially so I drove a little.

This is the appearance of i-Road. In the layout of the front two wheels and the rear one wheel, the mechanism called "active lean" which tilts the car body like a motorcycle when cornering is working makes stable cornering possible. Body size is 2350 × full width 850 × total height 1445 mm, the riding capacity is 2 people.


The upper and lower part of the door was made of transparent glass.


The driver sits on the left and right center of the car body. It's like a racing car layout.


Looking like this when you sit on the seat. You see a meter on a small handle. When closing the door, since the walls are the same distance on the left and right, we felt a bit cramped at the beginning, but unexpectedly there was no sense of incongruity.


Switch the drive mode with the instrument panel left switch. It seems that it will be in the same state as "P" by stepping on the parking brake when stopping with only 3 modes of "R" "N" "D".


On the right side is a USB terminal and accessories


I see a meter in front of my eyes. Drive mode, speed, and remaining battery power are displayed from the left. I do not feel a big difference with ordinary passenger cars.


The interesting thing is the steering system. Unlike ordinary passenger cars, this i-Road is designed to bend the rear wheels. How does it feel when driving actually?


The scene where i-Road is running is here. When cornering you can see that the car body is tilted largely inside. It is people of Toyota staff who are driving.

Toyota i-Road Demonstration run @ Tokyo Motor Show 2013 - YouTube


As you step on the accelerator, the sound from the motor "Queen" comes into your ears. The tilt of the car body is controlled by the computer based on the speed of the car and the cutting condition of the steering wheel. While the speed does not come out, the car body remains upright, but the tilt becomes stronger as speed increases to a certain extent. Therefore, even if you tilt to the maximum, you will not feel scary, but rather that magical feeling has become fun. Because the rear wheel bends, the sense that the butt always flows out during cornering, this is also strange feeling. If you are a forklift taker, this feeling may be easy to grasp.

Of course you can also back. Although the car body is designed to tilt even if the steering wheel is cut during the back, it is controlled so that the speed does not come out too much.

When Toyota / i-Road is backing like this @ Tokyo Motor Show 2013 - YouTube


When I started driving, I was surrounded by a unique sense that was neither a car nor a motorcycle, and the scheduled time passed quickly. I would like to look forward to being put into practical use in the near future.