Toyota Untold

Great drivers may be born, not made, but it still takes a lot of dirt, sweat, and rides to the track from Mom and Dad to create a champion. Like any other sport, racing needs to spot and develop young talent, and at Toyota, that’s the gig of Toyota Driver Development, or TD2. Join Tyler as she gets the scoop from the newest crop of TRD drivers to come through the program: Brittney Zamora, Harrison Burton, and Holley Hollan, as well as one of its first graduates, (aka “the gold-standard”):...

Back in January 2019, President Akio Toyoda unveiled the much-anticipated 2020 Supra at the Detroit Auto Show. Then, in July 2019, thousands of Supra super fans celebrated as they were able to finally get up close, hear the engine, and drive their very own 2020 Supra off the lot. In this episode, we’re going to talk to two people from the incredible Supra community: Miguel Jimenez, who runs the largest Supra event in the country, and Stephan Papadakis of Papadakis Racing, who actually...

Last year, devastating wildfires swept California, destroying the community of Paradise, California. But Allyn Pierce, a local nurse from Paradise, drove his Toyota Tundra — AKA the Pandra — through the flames several times to help his neighbors and colleagues make it to safety. Since then, Allyn has been enjoying his new truck and inspiring others by sharing his story, truly making the best out of a horrible situation, and he’s really become part of the Toyota family. So we sat down to...

Mobility matters because it connects people. So, on this episode, we’re taking a look at the future of mobility, celebrating how innovative engineering is bringing people together, and even learning about a little bit of #loveatlexus. We start by talking to Dr. Gill Pratt and Eddie Alterman about Autonomy, the first comprehensive documentary that takes a deep dive into self-driving cars. Then Matt Kubarek shares how Toyota, Kentucky Children’s Hospital, and University of Kentucky Football...

Not a lot of people are aware of it, but there’s a dark underworld of counterfeit vehicle parts — and a lot of well-meaning consumers actually end up buying these parts without ever knowing about it. That’s why Toyota’s Brand Protection group works closely with Homeland Security to track them down and remove them from the marketplace. We’re going to learn all about counterfeit parts and Toyota’s brand protection strategy from Joe Cammiso and Teena Bohi, two members of our Brand Protection...

Lexus is 30 years young this year, but this luxury car brand has had a monumental impact on the car industry in three short decades. To celebrate, we are going to take you back to the beginning to tell the story of Lexus straight from the leaders who were around back before Lexus even had a name: Dave Illingworth, the first General Manager of Lexus back in '89; David Christ, the current General Manager of Lexus; and Doron Levin, a Detroit-based journalist and car industry...

Overlanding is part offroading, part camping, and all adventure. It’s a long-distance journey with nothing but what you can pack in your car; a test of preparedness, endurance, and driving skill. We wanted to learn more, so we made our way over to FJ Summit in Ouray, Colorado, one of the world’s premiere Overlanding events, to talk to three Overlanding experts: Josh Burns, a member of Toyota's Product Communications Team; Craig Taguchi, Senior Manager of Lexus Communications; and Mark...

As Toyota transforms into a mobility company, our goal is to help create a more inclusive society, particularly when it comes to freedom of movement. Our partnership with the Paralympics is just one more step toward that goal, and we’ve challenged ourselves as a company to develop equipment for para athletes using our technology and engineering. Today, we sit down with three incredible Team Toyota Paralympians: David Brown and Jerome Avery, teammates in U.S. Paralympics Track & Field, and...

We sit down with two new Team Toyota additions as they prepare for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. Sprinter Michael Norman is racing to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time, while surfer Lakey Peterson hopes to not only compete in the Games, but to be a part of history as surfing makes its Olympic debut. Resources: Michael on Instagram:@michaelnorman22Michael on Twitter:@mike_norman22Lakey on Instagram:@lakeypetersonLakey on Twitter:@lakeypeterson This podcast...

Welcome back to season two of Toyota Untold! This season, we’re bringing you even more behind-the-scenes looks at Toyota and Lexus. We’re kicking off this season with some inspiring interviews with Team Toyota athletes one year out from the Olympics & Paralympics Games Tokyo 2020. On this episode, we talk to swimmer Simone Manuel, the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming, and skateboarder Jordyn Barratt, who is hoping to make it to Tokyo for the...

In the automotive industry, the race is always on to be first to market with the product that will not only change the industry, but transform culture itself – and the race is really heating up around autonomous vehicles. That’s one of the main reasons why Toyota invested $8B to start the Toyota Research Institute, or TRI, right in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. And one of the voices leading the development of innovative, life- and product-changing technology is Dr. Gill Pratt,...

Happy Earth Day! To celebrate, we’re paying homage to our beautiful Mother Earth in this episode of Toyota Untold. A lot of people first learned that Toyota is an environmental leader when we created the OG hybrid vehicle, the Prius – but Toyota’s environmental efforts go far beyond that. In 1992, the Guiding Principles at Toyota were created, and with it, the Toyota Earth Charter. This framework established guidelines for corporate action that included development of vehicles with...

Here at Toyota, we’re known for our sedans – but the T in Toyota also stands for “trucks.” Tundra, Tacoma, TRD: we are the T brand. We love the whole truck thing – Rugged, roomy, and built. Not long ago, a customer called to tell us his Tundra had driven a million miles. He brought the truck in and our engineers pulled it apart bolt by bolt in order to learn just what a million miles looks like on the inside of a vehicle. So, as we anticipate the roll-out of updates to the fall 2020...

Each year, the tech industry Super Bowl that is the Consumer Electronic Show takes over Las Vegas in a display of enough futuristic innovation, gadgetry and wizardry to blow the circuits and make a believer of even the most resolute luddite. The name “Consumer Electronics Show” feels a little outdated, hinting at the Betamax player that was never hooked up. In reality, the convention feels more and more like it is sponsored by lightworkers from another dimension. Certainly, the ideas that...

Toyota Untold isn’t about cars. Cars will come up, of course (we love cars) but this show is about people and their stories. And what’s the first thing we hear in any story? The title. So we're going to hear the story behind the title of this podcast, and then we'll hear from Nan Banks, Director of the Toyota Center for Communication, on the origins of Toyota itself: how the company got its name, and the five years of meetings and deliberation that went into the iconic logo. Learn more at...

In episode 3, we talked to a few members of the Toyota motorsports team about what it’s like to be behind the wheel of a high performance racing vehicle and how they started driving competitively in the first place. There are some really fun stories from some of the best racers in the U.S., so if you haven’t already, go back and listen to that episode. Today, we want to share a behind the scenes look at Toyota racing history, talking to some people who have been around since Toyota first...

In episode one, we talked to our friends Dedra DeLilli and Doug Moore about their incredible, jealousy-inducing cool jobs. Dedra is Group Manager of Olympic and Paralympic Marketing Team, which means she gets to work directly with some of the most incredible athletes on the planet. Doug Moore is the Director of Technology for Human Support, and he literally gets to spend his days playing with robots We promised you that we’d hear more from them, and we’re not liars. So we got them back on...

It’s a Supra New Year! At every event, with every post on social media, we hear all Toyota fans asking this one question: when is the Supra coming back? We're happy to finally say that the Supra is back and better than ever! It'll be arriving to US dealerships as soon as summer 2019. So to celebrate, today it’s all things Supra on Toyota Untold; from Supra's heritage, to the original concept car, to the first 1500 special launch...

Every year, Toyota Motorsports Day is when we bring all of our fantastic team Toyota drivers to campus so that all of our team members can see how cool they are, see their cars, see what they do, and learn more about why we're in motorsports. We can get autographs, take pictures – and invite them to talk on a podcast! This year, we were joined by an all-star cast: Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Hailie Deegan, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr. You’ll hear about everything from racing at just...

Today, we have a really special story to share with you. You probably already know about the horrible wildfires in California that spread so quickly, and you may even know that one town in particular – Paradise, CA – was almost completely decimated by these fires. Allyn Pierce is one of the many citizens of Paradise who lost their house. The hospital that he and his wife worked in also burned down – but not before he helped get patients and co-workers out of there. After narrowly escaping...