Shiotsu Autotrade Japan - President’s Blog

The Honda Puyo concept car was presented at this years Tokyo motor show. Puyo is a japanese Onomatopoeia that is a meant to convey a warm,friendly impression,the sensation of touching the vehicle`s softbody.Sounds kinky but puyo`s ‘gel’ body is actually soft .Honda claims the soft body increases safety.During the dark puyo`s body can glow,emitting light.Therefore in the night it is very easy to notice when in the streets.
Puyo is a green vehicle,powered by a fuel cell.Its design is that of a cornerless box.The small tyres are at the extreme corners of the vehicle.It has been designed in away that it can turn in 360 degrees.The puyo has got what is called the scissor doors!
The interesting part of the puyo is that instead of the steering wheel its got a joystick.Describing the puyo,most probably the suitable words are Quirky and impractical,this is what is expected of concept cars.The inside is designed to have a silky feel,providing a refreshing and people friendly space.

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Seven vehicles from the Japanese car manufacturer,Honda motor company,received the top safety pick designation for 2008,as published by the Insurance institute for highway safety www.iihs.org thus bagging the top award for most vehicles on the safest list for 2008.

The intitute requires new cars to have electronic stability control(ESC),to qualify for the award.Honda has had stability control on all SUVs,pickups and minivans since 2007 and the technology is now standard on the Accord.The seven vehicles on the list from Honda and its Acura unit are:The Honda Accord,CR-V,Element,Odyssey and pilot,and the Accura MDX and the RDX SUVS.

Electronic Stability Control senses when a driver may lose control of the vehicle and automatically applies brakes to the individual wheels to avoid a rollover and keep the vehicle stable.This new technology helps drivers avoid skidding on slick or icy roads and keeping control of their car when swerving to avoid unexpected objects on the road.Thus with ESC,crashes could be prevented altogether.

Technorati Tags: vehicles, Japanese car, Honda, safety, cars, Accord, Accura, Electronic Stability Control, ESC

Last month we received an order from Thailand for easy-entry cars meant for wheelchair bound people or thsoe with difficulty in walking.Our customer was very much satisfied with the toyota motor company`s WELCAB vehicles.Toyota says with pride that these cars are more patient than your daughter.

Indeed,with nearly 22 percent of Japan`s population aged 65 or older,businesses like Toyota are using cutting-adge technology to attend to needs of the aging population,and rolling out everything from easy-entry cars to remote-controlled beds.Last month when i attende a home care and rehabilitation convention in Tokyo,I could see several interesting products.For example,my spoon feeding robots  from secom company,helps elderly or disabled people to eat with a spoon and fork fitted swiveling arm,which could be operated using a joystick. And there was an intelligent Wheelchair TAO Aicle from Fujitsu and Aisin seiki,which uses a positioning system to automatically travel to a present destination;it uses sensors to detecty and stop at red lights,and to avoid obstacles.
And there were robotic suits to help nurses hoist patients on and off their beds.

So,if you grow old in Japan,expect to be served food by a robot,ride a voice-recognition wheelchair or even possibly hire a nurse in a robotic suit.

Technorati Tags: easy-entry, cars, toyota, WELCAB, robots , Wheelchair, robotic suits

Last week,one of our customers from england visted our company in osaka.He was curious to know about the butler cafes in Japan.I told him that though the butler cafes and bars are the latest social hot spots, they are meant for young females only,but i offered to accompany him to a maid cafe which is a place for young and old men to relax and be pampered with service from cute Japanese girls dressed as French maids.

The maid cafes are springing up everywhere in Japan and the main target is the lonely,young Japanese males who are technological nerds and do not have any social skills to deal with women.
The girls in the maid cafes are very friendly with such customer like a prince and are literally at their service.

The butler bars,on the other hand is a place for women to unwind- and where the only men around are in uniform and at their service.They also use old fashioned polite language like ‘good day,princess’ or ‘mademoiselle,your coach awaits`.The japanese male staff at these cafes wear formal outfits of english manservant down to tails and gloves.There is alot of pressure on japanese young working women in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka.They also are under pressure to conform and marry-which often means surrendreing much of their freedom.Thus the butler cafe offers such women a place to unwind from the pressures of the outside world and get a chance to act out their fantasies-say to be a princess with a footman for tea time.

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ASV is Advanced Safety Vehicle.These vehicles use advanced technologies to bring out markedly improved safety.This system is not recent, it goes all the way back to 1939 but as technology advances, the system has been improved significantly.Up to now only prototypes have been manufactured,talk of the nissan ASV-4.
The functioning of the ASV is alittle bit complicated but very interesting.This is how the system works:
Drowsiness warning system.
  A camera in the instrument panel monitors the driver`s driving condition and issues a warning to prevent dozing while driving.
Stopping the car in emergency.
 This is the automatic braking system for driver impairment,when the dozing driver is still in a dangerous situation despite warning and awake system activation ,this system calls attention to nearby vehicles and stops the car,minimising accidents.
Protecting pedestrians.
 Nighttime pedestrian monitoring,this system dectects the presence of pedestrians from infrared rays emitted from them and notifies the driver. it displays the direction of the pedestrian who is detected by an infrared ray sensor on the instrument panel,and enables the driver to easily recognise the area to pay attention.
Tire check.
  Tire pressure monitoring system,this system detects a change of tire air pressure by means of wheel speed sensors,and operates a warning lamp to warn a driver when the air pressure has dropped.
Improved visibility.
 This the water repellant windshield system,this system ensures good visibility by turning raindrops into spheres with a high beading coat technology that was newly developed to target improvement of visibility in rainy weather.
Easing Impact from side Collision.
 Side airbag system,this system is activated through sensors which detect having received a side collision,cushion the collision impact on driver and passenger by means of expanding airbags in the sphere between driver or passenger and the body side.
Wake-up.
 The drowsiness relieving system,this system sets off a warning and releases fragrance with a wake-up effect through the air conditioner by the drowiness warning system operation to dispel drowsiness.This system can be operated by the driver when overcome with drowsiness.
Automatic control distance between two cars.
 Adaptive cruise control system,When functioning an automatic speed control device ensures a proper headway breaking distance from the car infront, so as it draws closer velocity is automatically reduced. This system controls a proper headway automatically without driver breaking operation.
Signaling danger to nearby surroundings.
 Emergency braking advanced advisory system,this is the system which gives fast briefing of emergency braking to a following car.This system analyses information such as cirmustances in front,velocity of the braking car,driver pedal operation and the like.The brake lamps come on before the driver presses the brake pedal to give a warning to the following trafic.
Detecting Obstacles.
  Obstacle warning system.This system operates an alarm to warn a driver according to the degree of proximity to an obstacle such as another car in the front or rare side,or fallen objects on the road.
Efforts to minimise impact.
  Automatic braking system for reduction of collision speed.This system operates brakes automatically when driver braking operation is late, to reduce as thoroughly as possible collision speed against an obstacle such as another car in the front or rear side,or fallen objects on the road.
Quickly notifying an ambulance.
  Automatic emergency reporting system, this system automatically reports essential information such as location of a vehicle to an operation center when an accident has occured,and enable rapid communication with an ambulance.
Results of autonomous automatic driving system research.
According to research done,it reveals that, Achieved automatic driving on expressways with absolutely no operation by the driver;
Automatic driving is possible for 90% of all normal driving.But
 -cannot respond to sudden and urgent conditions.
 -there is the possibilty of road recognition errors under certain weather and road
  conditions.
 -driving stress is reduced and so there is the high possiblity of drivers falling asleep.
 -all driving conditions cannot be handled automatically when the driver falls asleep.
The nissan prototype ASV-4.

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