Akio Toyoda waves family flag, heir makes crisis personal challenge

The reclusive Akio Toyoda is taking the rare step of waving the family flag, as the scion to Toyota Motor Corp.’s founding dynasty tries to steer the world’s largest car company out of a spiraling safety crisis. In testimony prepared for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, President Toyoda pursues a rare personal tack on the emergency, saying “my name is on every car.” “As you well know, I am the grandson of the founder, and all the Toyota vehicles bear my name,” Toyoda says in prepared comments circulated ahead of Wednesday’s committee hearing in Washington. “For me, when the cars are damaged, it is as though I am as well.” The intimate reflection is a departure for Toyoda, who has spent most of his career sidestepping public discussion of his lineage.

SPD Workshop with Chris Bangle

Famed designer Chris Bangle will be hosting a four-day workshop at the Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD) in Milan, Italy this summer, following on from last year's successful workshop series. The university has announced that it will be holding the workshops from 9 July to 15 July, revolving around a theme entitled: 'An Endeavor in Discontinuity: Exterior Car Design of the Future'. The workshop is billed as a unique design experience, which will allow participants from all over the world to work in close contact with one of the most innovative designers of the current scene.

Child car smoking ban moves closer

A BAN ON SMOKING in cars with children present has moved a step closer after peers inflicted a defeat on the Government in the House of Lords. Campaigners welcomed the result of the Lords vote, claiming a ban would protect half-a-million children who were exposed to second-hand smoke in cars every week. Although the successful Labour amendment to the Children and Families Bill does not directly ban smoking in cars with children in them, it backs the principle of making it an offence.