Toyota shared a video Wednesday that gives a behind-the-scenes look at its Pre-Collision System (PCS).

Olivia Boisineau, a Toyota Motor North America corporate communications quality analyst, joined Jarod Duncan, senior manager with Integrated Vehicle Systems (IVS), in a new model Tacoma pickup truck to experience Toyota Safety Sense testing.

Duncan explained that IVS integrates with chassis and active safety systems.

Safety Sense is a suite of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that includes forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking, which is demonstrated in the video with a 4,000-pound trailer in tow.

Duncan drove toward a foam block made to look like a vehicle, and the Tacoma’s PCS stopped it before it collided with the object.

Toyota’s trailer light check and Straight Path Assist features are also shown in action in the video.

On Tuesday, Toyota published the first of three articles about how it has developed and deployed safety technology over the last 70 years. The first article focuses on the beginning stages of general safety efforts in the 1960s.

“As automobiles became more popular, units in operation increased, and the risk of crashes increased,” the article states. “As experts began to study crashes in more detail, they came to realize that there were three important elements to consider: the driver, the environment, and the vehicle.

“At the beginning, the emphasis was about what caused crashes and how to protect vehicle occupants if a crash did occur. Toyota and other automakers focused their efforts on reducing the risk of injury to occupants in various crash modes.”

Along with that came the passage of the federal National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966, which established the first-ever mandatory safety standards for new cars.

According to the article, the requirements of the new law were seatbelts, energy-absorbing steering columns, stronger seatbacks, shock-absorbing materials for interior surfaces, door locks that could stay closed in a crash, and laminated windshields.

“By that time, Toyota had established its U.S. sales arm and was selling Toyopet Crown sedans and Land Cruiser SUVs,” the article states. “Toyota saw compliance with the U.S. FMVSS [Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards] and other national standards as an important way to protect the motoring public from the unreasonable risk of injury.”

The 1963 Pacifica Convertible was the first model in which Toyota installed seatbelts.

By 1967, Toyota had redesigned its flagship Crown sedan to incorporate 20 design changes, improving driver and passenger crash safety. Then, in 1968, a national children’s traffic safety campaign was launched in Japan by Toyota, which included distributing picture books to nursery schools and kindergartens.

In 1971, Toyota introduced a new method of attaching windowpanes directly to the vehicle body to help prevent passenger ejections. The same year, anti-lock brakes and electronic skid control were found to be effective ways of improving a driver’s ability to maintain or regain control of their vehicles.

Also in the 1970s, spurred by the U.S. Department of Transportation, automakers, universities, and researchers designed concept cars to explore new safety approaches on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESVs).

Many of the ESV innovations were developed for the Toyota Corona, such as an energy-absorbing steering column, automatic lap belts, disc brakes, and electronic skid control.

By the 1990s, Toyota says it had refined its seatbelts, including the addition of pretensioners in 1991 and force limiters in 1997. Airbags became standard vehicle equipment during the decade, first on the driver’s side in 1992, then on the passenger side in 1996.

Toyota also introduced vehicle stability control was also introduced in 1995. Under certain circumstances, the feature could mitigate crashes caused by loss of control.

More advanced airbags came into production in 1997, which Toyota says decreased crash risks for smaller adults and children. In 2002, knee airbags were introduced.

Toyota rolled out active-safety features under the STAR Safety System in the mid-2000s, following the 2004 rollout of its Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management system (VDIM).

STAR included Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Traction Control (TRAC), Anti-lock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA), and Smart Stop Technology (SST).

VDIM linked traction control, electronic stability control, electronic steering, and other systems with a computer.

The STAR system was made standard across Toyota’s vehicle line in 2020.

Images

Featured image: Toyota’s Olivia Boisineau and Integrated Vehicle Systems’ Jarod Duncan test Toyota Safety Sense features in a new model Tacoma pickup truck. (Provided by Toyota)