For some people, even the simple wish to go outside is not easily fulfilled. For others, a power outage can be a life-or-death situation. This episode talks to Toyota employees working to contribute to medicine and nursing care with mobility.
“We want to get everyone where they want to go.”
At Toyota, there are people who sincerely want this and work to develop mobility and services to achieve it. This time on Toyota Times News, we met with families with children requiring constant medical care who are tackling their mobility challenges.
Their airways can get blocked with phlegm at any moment... The new care buggy was created in response to concerns families have about their child’s condition while driving.
By placing the child next to the driver, they can see the child’s face and care for them without leaving the driver’s seat.
Toyota has developed features like a wide-open frame that makes it easy to stow baggage, and securement that uses the car’s own locking system through conversations with 100 families.
For these families, even the simple wish to go outside isn’t easily fulfilled. The Oketani family, which has met with the development team several times, explained tearfully, “There are very few people who have been willing to take on our needs and help us do what we want to do, so I’m very happy that the people at Toyota have taken it on.”
We paid a visit to a special needs school in Tokyo designated as a welfare evacuation center that can assist people with special needs during disasters.
There were two Priuses at the disaster drill conducted there. They tried out a first for Toyota, using cars to power medical devices in the event of a power outage.
Ventilators, oxygen concentrators, phlegm suction machines, and other medical devices used by children requiring constant medical care all run on electricity.
Sachiko Takasawa from the Corporate Citizenship Division maintains the program, saying, “Electric vehicle technology can be used to help people who are vulnerable during disasters. Electric vehicles can come to places like evacuation shelters to provide electricity.”
We want mobility to be a possibility for making dreams come true, not a barrier to achieving them.
See the people who hold this wish in their hearts, working passionately to provide services and mobility that leave no one behind.