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TECHNOLOGY A23
Thursday 15 October 2015
Toyota aims to nearly eliminate gasoline cars by 2050
YURI KAGEYAMA for 2017. Hybrids switch back and a long time,” Senior Man- of global warming and
AP Business Writer Fuel cells run on hydrogen forth between a gasoline aging Officer Kiyotaka Ise environmental destruction
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota, un- and are zero-emissions. engine and an electric told reporters. “But for an made a move toward a
der ambitious environmen- Toyota’s Mirai fuel cell motor to deliver an effi- automaker to envision all hydrogen-based society a
tal targets, is aiming to sell went on sale late last year. cient ride. combustion engines as necessity.
hardly any regular gaso- Toyota has received 1,500 The Toyota Prius, which gone is pretty extraordi- Experts agree more has to
line vehicles by 2050, only orders for the Mirai in Ja- went on sale in 1997, is nary.” be done to curtail global
hybrids and fuel cells, to pan, and it just went on the top-selling hybrid, with Ise acknowledged some warming and pollution,
radically reduce emissions. and nations are increas-
The automaker promised In this June 26, 2014 photo, visitors look at Toyota Motor Corp.’s new fuel cell vehicle (FCV) on ingly tightening emissions
to involve governments, display at a Toyota showroom in Tokyo. standards.
affiliated companies and But they are divided on
other “stakeholders” in its Associated Press whether all gasoline en-
push to reduce average gines will disappear, or
emissions from Toyota cars sale in the U.S. and Europe. about 4 million sold glob- gasoline engine cars they’ll stay on, thanks to
by 90 percent by about Annual sales of hybrid ve- ally so far. Toyota is prom- would remain in less devel- greener internal combus-
2050, compared with 2010 hicles will reach 1.5 million ising to develop a hybrid oped markets, but only in tion engines, as well as
levels. and by 2020 Toyota would version in every category, small numbers. the arrival of clean die-
Electric cars weren’t part have sold 15 million hy- including usually gas-guz- He and other Toyota offi- sel technology.
of their vision, outlined by brids, nearly twice what it zling sport-utility vehicles, cials insisted on the inevita- Tatsuo Yoshida, senior
top Toyota Motor Corp. of- has sold so far around the as well as luxury models. bility of their overall vision, analyst at Barclays Securi-
ficials at a Tokyo museum world, it said. “You may think 35 years is stressing that the problems ties Japan in Tokyo, said
on Wednesday, striking a Toyota’s goals weren’t far-
contrast with rivals such as fetched.
Nissan Motor Co., which “The internal combustion
has banked on that zero- engine is developing and
emissions technology. metamorphosing into hy-
Toyota’s commitments brids,” he said. “Toyota has
come at a time when the been working on this tech-
auto industry has been nology for a long time.
shaken by a scandal at When officials speak out
Germany’s Volkswagen like this, it means they are
AG, in which it admitted 120 percent confident this
it cheated on diesel emis- is their scenario.”
sions tests covering millions As part of its environmental
of cars. vision, Toyota also prom-
Toyota projected its annu- ised to reduce carbon di-
al sales of fuel cell vehicles oxide emissions from pro-
will reach more than 30,000 duction lines during manu-
by about 2020, which is 10 facturing in 2030 to about
times its projected figure a third of 2001 levels.q
Tesla’s autopilot lets cars
drive, change lanes themselves
DEE-ANN DURBIN changing feature is an in- system will chime to remind In this Sept. 29, 2015 file photo, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
AP Auto Writer dustry first. Tesla CEO Elon them if they don’t. Drivers Motors Inc., introduces the Model X car at the company’s
DETROIT (AP) — Electric car Musk said the system is also — not Tesla — will be held headquarters in Fremont, Calif. Associated Press
maker Tesla Motors is leap- unique because it will con- liable if there’s a crash,
frogging competitors with stantly collect data from Musk said. get the system through the $2,500 charge for the
a new autopilot system actual drivers and improve “We’re being especially a software update start- full autopilot system will
that lets cars change lanes itself. The system will note, cautious at this early stage, ing Wednesday evening be able to activate all of
by themselves. for example, how quickly so we’re advising drivers in North America. Own- the autopilot features, but
Like other semi-auton- drivers can safely navigate to keep their hands on the ers in Europe and Asia will Musk said the side-impact
omous systems already a particular bend in the wheel just in case,” he said. get the software update in warning is a safety fea-
available from Mercedes, road or where stop signs “The software is very new.” about a week. People with ture and will be available
Audi and Volvo, Tesla’s sys- are located. Musk said fully autono- Model S sedans that were to everyone. For the next
tem automatically keeps “I think this is going to be mous, hands-free driving made earlier don’t have update, Musk said, Tesla is
the car within its lane and quite a profound experi- is still at least three years the required sensors and working on having the car
maintains a certain dis- ence for people,” Musk away from a technical won’t be able to add them drive itself in and out of ga-
tance from the car in front, said Wednesday in a con- standpoint, although it will retroactively, Musk said. rages when it’s summoned
both at highway speeds ference call with media. “It probably take regulators Only owners who paid by the owner.
and on city streets. It can will change people’s per- longer than that to allow it.
find a parking spot and ception of the future quite The autopilot update will
parallel park itself. It also drastically.” be added to around 60,000
uses cameras and sensors Musk also added a word vehicles worldwide, includ-
to warn drivers about po- of caution: Drivers need ing Model S sedans made
tential side impacts. to keep their hands on the after September 2014 and
But analysts say the lane- wheel, and the autopilot Model X SUVs. Owners will
