Toyota’s thinking outside the car with one of two new Concept-i vehicles it revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show this year. The Concept-i Walk is a sidewalk mobility device, which takes up the same physical space as a person walking, and which can anticipate and avoid collisions automatically
It looks sort of like a scaled down Segway, but it’s designed for easy operation for anyone using single joystick for navigation and acceleration. As mentioned, it occupies no more space than a single pedestrian, either, which means it should be easy to use in real world settings now, without any requirements in terms of changing behavior to accommodate the new transportation mode.
The Concep-i Walk has a slim body, culminating in the integrated control joystick which is ergonomically designed to work with human body. When the vehicle detects danger using its onboard sensors, it provides an alert and then automatically avoids whatever it seems, including this like a child darting out in front of its path, for instance.
The total width of the base is less than a person’s shoulder width, and its length front-to-back is less than a person’s average stride – so it takes up less space than a person walking, Toyota says. And unlike vehicles like the Segway, there’s no body weight shifting required, with steering designed around that single handle, which is positioned at about stomach height so that it can be used in a relaxed position by the rider.
All a driver needs to do is lightly flex their wrist right or left to make turns, as it’s designed to work with limited arm mobility for greater accessibility.
The vehicle has three wheels for stability when stopping, and the wheelbase is variable to provide stability at multiple...