Every fortnight until 9 April, YouTube star Max Fosh will drive the Yaris Hybrid to different destinations, while interviewing a UK celebrity, starting with Olly Murs – which is currently featuring across LadBible.com, LadBible’s Facebook, and LadBible’s Instagram. Murs’ interview will be followed by radio DJ Sonny Jay, musician Gracey, Olympian Sam Quek, comedian Munya Chawawa and, finally, YouTube and TV personality Chunkz.

“These imaginative new films are a novel way to draw attention to the personality, design and key features of Yaris Hybrid, and we hope that the fantastic line up of celebrities and their engaging interviews will bring humour, entertainment and some escapism,” said Courtney Lucas, Brand Awareness Manager at Toyota GB.

In each episode of the ‘Fantasy Road Trip’, the celebrity guest is ‘picked up’ by Fosh in the Yaris Hybrid. The scene is set by the use of a rolling treadmill and an animated backdrop, creating the illusion of a ‘magical’ road trip without ever actually going anywhere.

The partnership between Toyota and LadBible was broked by m/Six, The&Partnership’s media agency.

“We’re very proud to work with Toyota, one of the world’s largest automotive brands, on our first automotive campaign. When m/Six approached us, on behalf of Toyota, with their ‘Why Stop’ mantra, we knew that we were the perfect partner to bring this campaign to life,” said Lindsay Turner, Head of Client Solutions at LadBible Group. “Being the largest youth publishing brand, it felt like a natural opportunity for us to work our magic and in turn, we created the Fantasy Road Trip’. This engaging mini-series, with hand-picked talent that our community love, will provide our audience with a magical mystery tour showing the best that branded content can offer.”

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The ‘I Am Team GB’ campaign will see content delivered on more than 30 Ocean screens in seven cities, including London, today (22 August). This will lead to a day of events across the UK as part of ‘The Nation’s Biggest Sports Day’ on Saturday 24 August.

“As an Official partner of Team GB, it has been hugely beneficial to be able to work with another member of the Team GB partner stable in Ocean Outdoor, which has enabled us to grow awareness of the ‘I Am Team GB’ participation campaign significantly by utilising their digital OOH network,” said Tom Whiteside, sponsorship manager at Toyota GB.

The flagship event on the day will take place at Westfield Square, Westfield London, where four-time Olympic gold medallist and Britain’s most successful female Olympian Laura Kenny will lead proceedings. There will be a purpose-built stage and a grassed area to host activities for people of all ages and abilities, while a second zone will accommodate skills classes just for children.

As part of the event, Toyota will install an interactive wall where people can show their support for Team GB by taking a selfie which they can print out. The photos will become part of a giant mosaic featuring Kenny.

The activity was planned and delivered by M/Six, Mediacom, and Limelight Sports.

“This is the first in a series of activations we have planned in collaboration with Team GB, Toyota and other partners in the run up to Tokyo 2020,” said Kevin Henry, head of content and sponsorship at Ocean Outdoor. “Toyota is all about driving sustained growth in physical activity inspired by Team GB – and Ocean’s full motion screens and experiential spaces are central to the delivery of that message.”

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Toyota has partnered with Latino marketing agency Conill and 8th Wall to create an interactive AR mobile ad campaign promoting the new 2020 Toyota Corolla sedan to Spanish-speaking markets. The experience originates as a mobile banner ad, and once it’s clicked, with allow consumers to plant a virtual 2020 Corolla into their camera background.

“We always want to offer our guests a greater vehicle experience,” said Cynthia Tenhouse, vice president, vehicle marketing & communications, Toyota Motor North America. “The new generation of Hispanic car buyers are an incredibly important audience for Toyota, so we’re excited to deliver an engaging digital experience that produces a unique opportunity for consumers to visualize and engage with the greater-than-ever Corolla at the touch of their fingertips.”

Once the Corolla has appeared in the user’s environment, the consumer can access interactive hotspots that highlight the car’s moonroof, LED headlights, and 18-inch alloy wheels. The user can zoom into the hotspots, or virtually enter into the car and look at the interior with a 360-degree tool. With 8th Wall’s technology, users can open the sunroof, turn the headlights on and off, and spin the 18-inch wheels.

“We sought to help our young Latino audience experience the Corolla sedan where they spend most of their time: on their mobile phones,” said Veronica Elizondo, vice president, group creative director, Conill. “This type of execution, without the need to download apps, goes beyond traditional media channels and reinforces Toyota’s position as leader in innovation and technology.”

“Augmented reality provides a natural and intuitive way for people to consume digital content, and brands can leverage this to build a more authentic relationship with their customers,” said Erik Murphy-Chutorian, CEO of 8th Wall. “The web-based AR experience that Conill created for the Toyota Corolla sedan using 8th Wall technology is an example of an interactive, immersive advertisement that can be experienced within the mobile browser, allowing the customer to virtually bring the product into their own environment. This not only provides important context and visualization for technical features to the user, but it helps to qualify customers before they arrive at the dealership.”

The ad unit is currently available on Android devices within the US, but will be available to iOS customers later on in 2019. 

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Under the talks, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Toyota, and others would take a minority stake in Uber’s autonomous driving business.

A Toyota spokesman told Reuters that it “constantly reviews and considers various options for investment” but did not confirm the talks.

Last year, Toyota provided Uber with a $500m cash injection as part of a self-driving vehicle collaboration. As part of this deal, the pair agreed to work on the mass production of autonomous vehicles that will become part of Uber’s fleet of cars. The partnership was seen as both trying to catch up with rivals in the self-driving market where they lag behind.

Via its Vision Fund, SoftBank has already invested $2.25bn in General Motors’ (GM) Cruise self-driving division. The two-part investment will lead to SoftBank’s Vision Fund owning a 19.6 per cent stake in GM Cruise.

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Toyota GB, the company’s UK arm, worked with digital agency Brandwidth to create the Toyota Hybrid AR application. The iPad app uses both AR technology and objective recognition software to overlay graphics of the inside of the hybrid car onto physical vehicles.

Customers visiting Toyota showrooms, shopping centres, and trade shows will be able to use the app to see how different elements of the drivetrain interact with each other, while getting a glimpse of which parts of the hybrid system are in use and how energy is passed between them depending on the selected drive state. In addition, the experience features ‘hotspots’ which can be clicked to find out more information about the vehicle’s key features.

“As pioneers in the hybrid space, we wanted to find a way to help our customers understand how hybrid technology works, and demonstrate the many benefits it offers,” said Stephen Duval, TCMS & direct marketing manager at Toyota. “This innovative new AR experience, created in partnership with Brandwidth, brings the C-HR’s hybrid drivetrain to life in a simple yet highly engaging way.”

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Japanese automotive brand Toyota is set to expand its partnership with ride hailing platform Uber, investing $500m (£387m) in the company as part of its efforts to develop self-driving cars.

The two firms will collaborate on the mass production of autonomous vehicles that will be deployed as part of Ubers network of cars, in a move that industry analysts have called an attempt to catch up with other rivals in the growing driverless car market.

“Combining efforts with Uber, one of the predominant global ride sharing and automated driving R&&D companies, could further advance future mobility,” said Shigeki Tomoyama, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and president of Toyota Connected Company. “This agreement and investment marks an important milestone in our transformation to a mobility company as we help provide a path for safe and secure expansion of mobility services like ride sharing that includes Toyota vehicles and technologies.”

The partnership will see technology from each company integrated into purpose-built Toyota vehicles which will form part of Ubers network, owned nad operated by mutually agreed upon third-party autonomous fleet opertors.

“The deal is the first of its kind for Uber, and signals our commitment to bringing world-class technologies to the Uber network,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. “Our goal is to deploy the worlds safest self-driving cars on the Uber network, and this agreement is another significant step towards making that a reality.

“Ubers advanced technology and Toyotas commitment to safety and its renowned manufacturing prowess make this partnership a natural fit. I look forward to seeing what our teams accomplish together.”

Uber has had a tumultuous 12 months following the departure of its co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick. The firm recently shuttered its self-driving trucks division, and has been seeking partnerships in a number of areas with rival ride hailing firms such as Lyft, Grab and Waymo, Alphabets self-driving car division. The partnership with Toyota will strengthen its solo efforts in the face of increasing competition.

“Ubers automated driving system and Toyotas Guardian system will independently monitor the vehicle environment and real-time situation, enhancing overall vehicle safety for both the automated driver and the vehicle,” said Dr Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota Research Institute and TMC Fellow. “We look forward to this partnership accelerating both companies development and deployment of automated driving technology.”

The initial fleet will be based on Toyotas Sienna Minivan platform, and also utilise Toyotas Mobility Services Platform, its core information infrastructure for connected vehciles. A pilot-scale deployment is expected in 2021.

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The e-Palette Concept Vehicle, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), has been designed by Toyota to ‘meet the demands of future multi-mode transportation and business applications’. Leveraging Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (MSPF), the vehicle is electric and fully automated.

“The automobile industry is clearly amidst its most dramatic period of change as technologies like electrification, connected and automated driving are making significant progress,” said Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corporation president. “Toyota remains committed to making ever better cars. Just as important, we are developing mobility solutions to help everyone enjoy their lives, and we are doing our part to create an ever-better society for the next 100 years and beyond. This announcement marks a major step forward in our evolution towards sustainable mobility, demonstrating our continued expansion beyond traditional cars and trucks to the creation of new values including services for customers.”

Toyota plans on testing the concept vehicle in regions around the world in early 2020, with the hopes of contributing to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo that year. Toyota’s partners will be able to leverage the concept in coordination with all of the MSPF services, or incorporate the vehicle into their own tech development program.

So, we can prepare ourselves for self-driving pizza deliveries, Amazon deliveries, and Uber rides in a pod-like, futuristic-looking AI vehicle.

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In that spirit, our Innovation Lab feature takes a step beyond the world of apps, ads and handsets with slightly bigger screens, in order to share some of the tech world’s newest ideas. They might be interesting, disruptive or just outright strange, but these are the stories that have caught our eye over the past week.

Budweiser aims to be the first beer on Mars
If Elon Musk and the engineers at SpaceX have their way, we could soon be looking at the first serious attempts to reach Mars, and when that first astronaut steps onto the Red Planet’s dusty surface, they’re going to want to be able to celebrate. What better way than with a smooth, refreshing space beer, asks Budweiser.

The brewing giant has already said that it plans to be the first beer on Mars, and now it’s moving forward with that idea, announcing that it will be sending barley, one of the key ingredients of beer, into space in December to test how it reacts to microgravity and exposure to cosmic radiation. The grains will be placed aboard SpaceX’s supply rocket, which is leaving for the International Space Station on 4 December.

Once the barley arrives, scientists will examine how the barley seeds germinate in the unique environment, before sending the seedlings back to Earth 30 days later for further analysis. In 2011, Scottish distiller Ardbeg sent whisky into space and found that its time in zero gravity altered the chemical composition of the spirit, so beer brewed in space or on Mars could well taste different to our Earth beverages.

“Budweiser is always pushing the boundaries of innovation and we are inspired by the collective American Dream to get to Mars,” said Ricardo Marques, vice president of Budweiser. “We are excited to begin our research to brew beer for the red planet.”

Toyota’s latest generation of android can mirror your movements

Toyota is best known as an automotive manufacturer, but the Japanese firm has a decent sideline in robotics, and its latest humanoid creation, the T-HR3, is its most advanced model yet, capable of mirroring the motions of a human controller with uncanny accuracy. According to Toyota, the model could serve as a robotic assistant in homes, hospitals, construction sites, disaster zones or even space.

The T-HR3 is controlled using Toyota’s proprietary Master Manoeuvring System, which enables the entire body of the robot to be operated instinctively with wearable controls that map hand, arm and foot movements to the robot, as well as providing a ‘robots-eye-view’ through a heads-up display. Sensors, motors and self-interference prevention technology all work together to ensure that the operator and robot act in perfect harmony.

“The Partner Robot team members are committed to using the technology in T-HR3 to develop friendly and helpful robots that coexist with humans and assist them in their daily lives,” said Akifumi Tamaoki, general manager of the Partner Robot Division at Toyota. “Looking ahead, the core technologies developed for this platform will help inform and advance future development of robots to provide ever-better mobility for all.”

The 5’1” robot boasts 29 articulated body parts and is even capable of feats such as standing on one foot, thanks to the precision control offered by the Master Manoeuvring System. While Toyota has yet to announce any specific plans to roll out the robot to businesses or consumers, the T-HR3 will be on show at the International Robot Exhibition next week.

Scientists to fight spread of diseases by dumping mosquitoes from drones
It sounds like backwards logic – attempting to stop the spread of dangerous diseases like the Zika virus by releasing more mosquitoes into problem areas – but scientists at the United States Agency for International Development think it could actually work, and have teamed up with drone company WeRobotics to enable quick and precise transportation of the airborne bugs.

The idea is to breed large numbers of male mosquitoes in captivity, sterilise them using low doses of radiation and then release them in key populations using specially-developed drones. These mosquitoes will still compete with wild males for female attention, despite being sterile, but by far outnumbering them, could result in local mosquito populations dropping by up to 90 per cent.

Using sterile mosquitoes to reduce wild populations isn’t a new idea, but developments in drone technology make the plan a lot more practical, enabling them to be deployed over huge areas with little need for existing infrastructure, which is often a problem in developing countries. WeRobotics’ cofounder Adam Klaptocz believes that if the transport and delivery process can be perfected, they may be able to manage mosquito populations over hundreds of square kilometres with a relatively small team.

Perfect your four-hand with Youbionic’s double fisted prosthetic

Federico Ciccarese and his company Youbionic believe that we are on the cusp of a leap forward in human development, with humanity ready to grow and evolve to meet the capabilities that technology offers us. What better way to do that than to add an extra hand onto the end of your arm?

Youbionic has created a 3D-printed glove that doubles your gripping ability, placing two hands at the end of your arms instead of the standard one. The device, which costs €1,799 (£1,600), is 3D-printed from plastic so you remain fairly manoeuvrable, although if you’re planning on using it to win boxing matches, you should probably think again.

While the robotic hands are limited to basic open and close states at the moment, the activators, which are triggered by two of your real fingers, allow for fine control of the speed. The practical uses for such a setup are admittedly quite limited, but Youbionic hopes that the concept will inspire others to rethink what it means to be human in this new age, and what other innovations can be made using the latest technology.

Cochlear implant uses lasers to restore hearing
Researchers from Germany, Switzerland and Austria have teamed up to develop a prototype cochlear implant that uses laser pulses to transmit sounds into the inner ear, helping people with impaired hearing to perceive sounds.

The implant uses an array of near-infrared lasers to heat up fluid within the cochlear canals. As the fluids heat, they expand, and when this happens rapidly enough, it generates tiny vibrations in the ear, stimulating the tiny hair cells that register it as noise, passing the signals on to the auditory nerve and then the brain.

The technology is still in its early days, but the researchers have built prototype versions of the implants and tested them, creating nerve signals that matched those generated by an actual noise. The next step is improving the energy efficiency of the device and continuing to minuturise it – a tricky task, given that it is already smaller than a matchstick. Still, the team is already working with a variety of manufacturers, hoping to bring the technology to market.

The post Innovation Lab: Martian Beer, Copycat Robots and Laser Hearing appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Toyota’s investment comes from its Toyota Tsusho trading arm through its Next Technology Fund, which was created in April to invest in technology, product and service innovations across the sectors that the company operates. Grab is the first to receive an investment from the fund.

“We are delighted to welcome this investment from Toyota Tsusho,” said Anthony Tan, Grab CEO and co-founder. “It is an affirmation of our hard work, leading position and Southeast Asia’s enormous growth potential. We look forward to working with Toyota Tsusho to move Southeast Asia forward.”

In addition to the investment, Grab and Toyota have also agreed to collaborate on a data-focused program that aims to offer Grab drivers improved access to connected car services.

The initiative will see Grab share data on driving patterns, captured by Toyota’s TransLog data-transmission driving recorder, from 100 Toyota cars in its fleet. This information will then be analysed by Toyota’s team and, based on this analysis, recommendations will be made about how other connected car services offered by the Toyota Mobile Service Platform (MSPF) could improve Grab driver experience.

“Through this collaboration with Grab, we would like to explore new ways of delivering secure, convenient and attractive mobility services to our fleet customers in Southeast Asia,” said Shigeki Tomoyama, senior managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation and president of the Connected Company.

Grab, which boasts 55m app downloads and over 1.2m drivers in 87 cities across Southeast Asia, has also seen its head of engineering depart the company.

According to TechCrunch, VP of engineering Arul Kumaravel has left for personal reasons. Kumarvel joined the Grab from Amazon, where he was head of mobile development, in April 2015.

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The Safe & Sound app needs to be downloaded by both the teen and their parent(s), and then paired.

It uses Google Maps API technology to detect when the car is moving over 9mph, and blocks off all social media notifications and incoming calls at this point. In addition, and perhaps the best part, the app syncs the teen’s Spotify account with their parent’s – so, if the driver touches their phone or exceeds a certain speed limit, their music will cut off and their parent’s playlist will start playing instead. The music returns to the driver’s own playlist once they stop touching their phone or return to the speed limit.

“We have a safety-first approach globally and it is our mission to one day eliminate all road accidents. Because we truly believe in safety as a company, we decided to actually do something about it. Above and beyond our products,” said Dario Giustini, senior manager of brand & communications at Toyota Europe. “The Safe and Sound app will hopefully help to raise awareness especially among young drivers about the dangers of improper mobile phone use in the car. This app is not just available for Toyota drivers but for anyone and everyone on the roads.”

The free app, which has been released to coincide with school and university summer holidays, is only available on Android devices through the Play Store.

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