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is beginning public trials of its i-RoadToyota i-RoadJapan, 2013 > present14 photos
concept near its headquarters in Toyota City, Japan. Starting in early 2014, the i-Road and Toyota COMS electric vehicles will be used on the city’s roads as personal transport to test how they work as urban vehicles. There will 1,000 people involved in the test.

It comes under Toyota’s Ha:mo project that is meant to improve traffic flow and lower emissions by combining public and private transportation into a publically owned car sharing system. Each of the electric vehicles will have navigation with traffic routing to get people where they need to be as quickly as possible.

All of the vehicles are viewable on a smartphone application that doubles as a navigation aid and directs users to the best vehicle based on traffic flow and local vehicle stock. The app also has access to local bus schedules and will direct users to the correct bus if it is the better option.

Users pay 200 yen ($2.05 or €1.51) for the first 10 minutes of the cars’ use and 20 yen ($0.21 or €0.15) for each minute afterwards.

By the end of October, there will be 17 vehicle locations in the city.

The test is also meant to address the viability of electric vehicles. Toyota has 100 COMS electric vehicles ready and 100 Yamaha electrically assisted bicycles for the project. More vehicles will be ready when it launches in early 2014.