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TOKYO: Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. on February 18 unveiled the
latest lineup of its flagship Crown series featuring for the first
time a hybrid engine and a safety system to make sure drivers are
fully awake. Toyota introduced three models of its Crown, its
flagship domestic line, including one with a petrol-electric hybrid
engine. The new models to be sold in Japan are installed with a
pre-crash safety system, billed as a world first by Toyota, which
detects if drivers’ eyes are fully open, the company said.
Once the system catches that a driver’s eyes
are closed for a while, it gives out an alert and forces the vehicle
to stop when a risk of collision arises, the company said.
“The new Crown maintains the traditional
quality of trust and safety while being equipped with
state-of-the-art technologies,” Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe
told reporters. “We have customers who strongly support the Crown
brand over the Lexus.”
The Crown line was first launched in 1955 as
Toyota’s flagship luxury sedan and is particularly popular in the
Japanese market.
The Lexus, another flagship luxury model, was
launched in 1989 for the North American market. It was later
expanded elsewhere and was introduced to Japan only in 2005.
“The Lexus is the universal brand while we
target a different customer group with the Crown,” Watanabe said.
Toyota is expected this year to move past
Detroit giant General Motors as the world’s top-selling carmaker,
in part due to its success in pioneering eco-friendly hybrid cars at
a time of high prices at the pump.
-- AFP
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