The Toyota i-Road is shorter than the
average 12-year-old girl. It’s
57 inches tall, has three wheels and maxes out at 37 miles per hour. And Toyota is looking for ways to work it into the future of driving in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Near AT&T Park in San Francisco last month, the company held an event for innovators to submit business ideas for using the vehicle. Three winners were announced Friday:
- The grand prize of $15,000 went to Jason Wiener, whose concept involves configuring the i-Road to behave either as an electric bike or as a car, opening up its use to senior citizens and unlicensed teenagers older than 16.
- The second place prize of $3,000 went to Dryvve, which proposed a mobility operation linked with on-demand car and parking services.
- Third place and $2,000 went to Car-on-Demand, which presented an idea to use the i-Road for a car sharing pickup and dropoff service.
“The Toyota i-Road provides a swinging driving experience and a sense of unity with the vehicle," i-Road project manager Akihiro Yanaka said in a
statement. "It has the potential to significantly change future urban transport systems.”
Ben Miller is the associate editor of data and business for Government Technology. His reporting experience includes breaking news, business, community features and technical subjects. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, and lives in Sacramento, Calif.
