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It's been some 15 years since Toyota launched the first Prius with the tag line "Just in time for the 21st century." While it's commonplace now, back then, the Prius was at the cutting edge of the hybrid revolution. Toyota followed up with a parade of hybrids, expanding the use of its fuel-efficient tech to its luxury Lexus lineup as well as building a brand around the Prius.
NASCAR stars Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch were recently involved with the Dream Build Challenge, hoping to win $50,000 for their respective charities. Instead of building trucks like their NHRA counterparts, Bowyer had a Prius built for the contest while Busch stuck with a car he's very familiar with, the Camry.
Bowyer's Tekked-out Prius is probably about as cool-looking as a Prius can get with its lowered stance, custom body kit, side cameras replacing the door mirrors and black-and-blue paint job matching the car's techie persona. Inside is where most of the mods took place with a totally redone interior including new fabrics throughout (including leather and Alcantara) and plenty of cabin tech such as the 17-inch touchscreen computer built into the passenger side of the instrument panel. Bowyer's charity of choice is the Emporia Community Foundation which goes to benefit Bowyer's hometown of Emporia, Kansas.Named after Busch's apparent alter-ego (Rowdy Burns from Days of Thunder), the Rowdy shows how mean a midsize Toyota can look with styling upgrades like a wide body kit, rear diffuser with integrated exhaust outlets and a ram air hood. The blacked-out Camry also has a lowered suspension and rides on staggered-width 18-inch wheels, and it was was built for the Kurt Busch Foundation.-Courtesy of AutoBlog
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Here are a few Toyotas that get the red carpet treatment because of their famous owners.
Kate Hudson, her entourage, and her Prius
Gwyneth Paltrow, some awesome shades, and her PriusKirsten Dunst on a workout run with her Prius
California is the latest state to allow testing of Google's self-driving cars on the roads, though only with a human passenger along as a safety measure.
Gov. Edmund "Jerry" Brown signed the autonomous-vehicles bill into law last month alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin and State Sen. Alex Padilla, who authored the bill, at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The bill, SB 1298, will set up procedures and requirements for determining when the cars are road-ready.
Brin hopes that self-driving cars will be able to drive on public streets in five years or less.
"Anybody who first gets in the car and finds the car is driving will be a little skittish. But they'll get over it," said Brown when asked if the California Highway Patrol was on board with the plan.
The cars use a combination of technologies, including radar sensors on the front, video cameras aimed at the surrounding area, various other sensors and artificial-intelligence software that helps steer. Google is the most visible company working on these types of vehicles, but similar projects are under way at other organizations.
Google has already been testing the cars on the road in Nevada, which passed a law last year authorizing driverless vehicles. Both Nevada and California require the cars to have a human behind the wheel who can take control of the vehicle at any time.
So far, the cars have have racked up more than 300,000 driving miles, and 50,000 of those miles were without any intervention from the human drivers, Google says.
There have been no accidents while the cars were controlled by the computer. The only documented accident with one of the Google vehicles was a fender bender that took place while a human was in control.
Brin, who sported a pair of Google glasses at the media event without comment, said the cars could address a variety of current transportation issues. First and foremost, he said, the self-driving cars would be safer than human-driven cars. There were just under 33,000 deaths from motor vehicle accidents in the United States in 2010.
They also could ferry around people who are usually unable to to drive, such as blind people.
"Some people have other disabilities, some people are too young, some people are too old, sometimes we're too intoxicated," said Brin.
Ideally, a car that drives itself can minimize traffic by chaining together with other self-driving vehicles and using highways more efficiently. Drivers wouldn't be limited to listening to NPR and honking during their morning commute; instead they could use that time to be productive, like the millions of people who take public transit currently do.
Brin also discussed the many parking lots in urban and suburban areas, calling them "a scar to the surface of the Earth." Self-driving cars would be able to drop you off at work and then pick up another person instead of idling in a parking lot. If you did opt to own your own car, it could park itself in the most efficient way possible.
Consumer Watchdog, a consumer-rights group, has expressed reservations about the cars on privacy grounds, saying they would allow Google to gather personal information about passengers.
Google's fleet of vehicles started with Toyota Prius Hybrids. The project is directed by Sebastian Thrun, who also co-founded Google Street View.
There are many legal and technical problems still to be worked out before the cars are commonplace. Asked who would get the ticket when a driverless car runs a red light, Brin replied, "Self-driving cars do not run red lights."
-Courtesy of CNN