Technology

Toyota Motor Sales built the South Campus expansion, officially opened on Earth Day 10 years ago, to accommodate a growing workforce. Along the way, the LEED-certified structure has inspired environmentally sensitive development well beyond the Torrance, Calif.-based campus.

Officially, John Smiros is the eCommerce manager in the Kansas City Region. But, odds are, you won’t find him at their offices in Kansas City, Mo. That’s because he spends 75 percent of his time out in the field, working hand-in-hand with dealers. “If I had a choice, it would be even more,” he says.

When the Customer First initiative launched a year ago, everyone agreed the organization wasn't lacking for dealer-customer interaction data. Rather, it was awash in it. The solution: A simple at-a-glance dashboard that all the key stakeholders could access via the Internet.

Most people notice a car’s color. But few stop to think about why it’s, say, that particular shade of blue rather than another. Janis Ambrose Shard is among that inquisitive minority.

Your car isn't about to kick you out of the cockpit, but it could become more capable of sharing driving duties. Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toyota introduced a research vehicle jampacked with automated driver assistance technologies.

In April 2011, Toyota and Microsoft announced a partnership to use the Windows Azure computer cloud to deliver next-generation telematics services to Toyota’s customers. Last year, Toyota Motor Sales' Connected Vehicle Technologies delivered the first tangible benefit of that partnership: A smartphone app that controls plug-in vehicles' climate control systems.

By day, Korhan Gurocak serves as the Legal and Corporate Responsibility and Forensics manager in Information Systems (IS). By night, he is a screenwriter. While practicing the latter, he came up with a breakthrough idea that just might make a big impact on the former.

Toyota’s brand color might be red. But when seen through Interbrand’s prism of sustainability, the company is decidedly green. Toyota was named the “Greenest Global Brand” by Interbrand for 2012, retaining the top spot in the firm’s ranking of corporate leaders.

By championing hybrid technology, Toyota’s vehicles—in particular the iconic Prius—have earned a reputation for environmental sensitivity. But, the fact is, many of Toyota’s buildings are just as green.

Last week, Toyota Motor Sales dedicated a 1.1-megawatt hydrogen fuel cell generator on the Torrance., Calif., headquarters campus, a project that would not have been possible if not for its close proximity to an ExxonMobil refinery.