2011 Toyota Tundra Grade on 2040-cars

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Toyota takes self-driving step with patent for eyelid detection device

With the rise of smartphones and more advanced auto infotainment systems, combatting distracted driving is a growing concern. One day, fully autonomous vehicles could end the problem, but that solution is still at best years away for consumers. Until then, automakers are working to make the tech safer, and one way to do that is monitoring drivers' eyes to make sure they're paying attention. With a recent patent, Toyota thinks it can make the tracking work even better. In Japanese brand's patented solution, a camera constantly monitors the driver's upper and lower eyelids and uses the data to calculate how open the eyes are. The company admits systems like this already exist elsewhere, but they can sometimes return false results by detecting redeye instead of the location of a person's actual eyeball. To fix this, the automaker adds a further step to search for redeye. If it occurs where skin is already assumed to be, then the system can go back to tracking the accurate location of the eye. Toyota doesn't specify how it might use this technology, but more accurate data would always be useful. The company wouldn't be the first automaker to work on implementing eye detection, either. For example, General Motors has a pilot program using it to monitor distraction, and Jaguar Land Rover watches a driver's peepers to create the 3d image for its Virtual Windscreen. Related Video:

VW targeting 10M sales in 2014

Volkswagen Group believes it can sell over 10 million vehicles in 2014, with hopes of overtaking Toyota as the world's largest automaker in the process. If VW can do it, it would meet that goal four years earlier than planned. Of course, Toyota isn't sitting still - it also hopes to top the 10 million-car threshold this year and has the advantage of already holding the top spot.
"With rising volume and new models, we will increasingly see positive earnings effects as well," said VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn during its annual press conference, according to Automotive News. The company is spending huge amounts of money to propel it to the top, investing 84.2 billion euros ($117 billion) through 2018, and according to AN it plans to introduce over 100 new models worldwide among all of its brands by the end of next year.
The German automaker may get an extra boost as the European car industry shows signs of emerging from its yearlong stagnation and China continues to grow. In January, VW Group was up 8.5 percent in Europe and 15.5 percent in China, according to its own figures. However, the US has been slowing with Volkswagen brand sales down 19.04 percent in January and down 13.81 percent in February.

Construction of Lexus' first US assembly line underway

The ES is Lexus' top-selling sedan, but the Japanese luxury marque has never manufactured it outside of Japan. In fact, Lexus has never made any cars in the United States, one of its largest markets worldwide. But that's about to change.
Yesterday, construction began in Georgetown, Kentucky, on the first Lexus assembly line in America, the first concrete (or steel) step in a $360-million expansion of Toyota's plant in the Bluegrass state that will create 750 new jobs. The expansion was announced last April by chief executive Akio Toyoda at the New York Auto Show.
Once the new assembly line gets online in the fall of next year, Toyota plans on building some 50,000 units of the ES each year. Lexus sold a record 72,581 examples of the ES in the United States last year - 30 percent more than the previous year - so Lexus will either have to import some more from overseas or leave some buyers disappointed.