The Toyota pod is a concept car created by Toyota in collaboration with Sony, and was featured in Gran Turismo Concept. It was first shown at the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show.
Acquisition[]
| Game | Purchase location | Credits | Other methods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gran Turismo Concept | --- | --- | Win a Normal Level race at Tahiti Maze Reverse. |
Emotion System[]
The car is noted for its "emotion" system, which is part of its built-in artificial intelligence (identified with the colored lights on the front, side, and rear of the car), as well as "eyebrow" LEDs above and below the headlights. For every emotion change, a tone is also played. There are four states, determined by the color of the LED:
- Cyan: Default. When in this state, the outer emotion lights (on the front and the rear) are normally switched off.
- Yellow: Happy. Occurs when the player, for instance, wins a race using the car, or gains a position against another car.
- Blue: Sad. Occurs when the player, for instance, crashes out into a wall.
- Red: Angry. Occurs when the player drives aggressively, for instance by colliding into another car.
It also has an antenna resembling the tail of an animal, which changes depending on the emotional state of the car. For instance, when on the "happy" state, the tail "wags", while if the player collides with another car, the antenna goes up and down, and if the player wins the race, the tail goes up.
pod Race[]
The pod had an exclusive race to itself, named the pod Race. The track used in it, made out of segments from Clubman Stage Route 5, is a three lap race where a total of six pods, including the player (the pod Race can also be played with two players), drive through the pit lane backwards before stopping in a special area, holding the handbrake for at least one second, before being allowed to resume racing. During this stoppage, the car is lowered and plays a brief tone until the car moves again. If the stopping area is passed without coming to a halt, a message in red will appear saying, "Return to STOP area". Driving further past the finish line without returning will result in a disqualification (displaying "FAIL").
The pod Race is unlocked by completing all Course Licenses, regardless of the medal obtained.
Trivia[]
- In the car's unlock sequence, the colored lights are turned on in the cyan (neutral) color. This was likely meant to showcase the unique feature of the exterior LED lights.
- A similar situation also happens with the Suzuki GSX-R/4 Concept '01, with the dashboard screen turned on inside the car's interior in its car unlock screen.
- It became an internet meme due to its sounds and colored lights.
- As a GT Concept leftover, the car can also be found as an unused car in the Japanese version of Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, which still used GT3's model format.