New Delhi, February, 2020: Aligning with Toyota’s global commitment to offer innovative Safety solutions, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) conceptualized and organized 3^rd edition of Toyota Hackathon on Road Safety, at theIndian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Students from Grade 9^th to 12^th, from schools across New Delhi participated in this intense challenge to develop digital road safety solutionsin support of the National Mission for “Zero Fatality.” Toyota Kirloskar Motor organized this road safety initiative in association with Indian Road Safety Campaign.Aimed at creating an impactful consciousness, this unique initiative provides a platform to encourage and motivate young minds to be aware of the road safety challenges and become responsible safety ambassadors by developing effective digital road safety solutions.

The event was graced by renowned athletes,Ms. Dipa Karmakar, Indian artistic gymnast, Padma Shri and Arjun Awardeealong with Mr. Kamal Singh, Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact Network India, Mr. Vikram Gulati, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility & Public Relationsand other Government officials and senior members from TKM& IIT Delhi.

The top performers of the hackathon were selected by eminent jury constituting of members drawn from diverse fields such as Academia, Corporates, Media, Transportation, Government, Police and Toyota experts. The Top five and the Best three were recognized and awarded trophies and cash prizes. Consolation prizes were also given out to motivate the participants for their enthusiastic participation and churning smart solutions for road safety challenges.

The event was organized at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The institute extended dedicated support to Toyota providing volunteers, mentors and campus facility for conducting the Road Safety Hackathon.

In the initial stage of the hackathon program, a basic online aptitude test was conducted for the 500 participating teams from schools across New Delhi. A three-phase screening process was undertaken to shortlist the best 50 teams for the onsite hackathon. These top 50 teams were further trained and mentored on basic technical skills coupled with required resources to support them during the hackathon. Each team were allotted 36 hours to work on their innovative ideas with guidance and mentoring from experts during the process to finally arrive at a prototype or a concrete idea as a road safety solution. TKMwill further incubate these bright ideas and help the students develop and nurture the implementable solutions suggested by them in support of road safety cause.

Sharing his thoughts on this uniqueinitiative, Mr. Kamal Singh, Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact Network India, Chief Guest, said, “Road accidents don’t only cause trauma to the family of the deceased but also contribute to the huge economic loss to the nation. It is important to engage the young school children in road safety campaigns at an early age to understand the road safety challenge and follow the right safety culture. It is vital to inculcate a positive behavior towards road safety at a grass-root level, to ensure safer roads for the young generation.It is a delight to witness these little wondersdeveloping such out-of-the-box digital solutions to enhance road safety in India. It is really great to see safety leaders like Toyota coming forward to create such an innovativeprogram for young minds to develop innovative solutions to make Indian roads safer.We would request more corporates to be a part of this movement and collaborate with Government to make mobility safer and reliable.”

Speaking on this unique initiative,Guest of Honor for the event, Ms. Dipa Karmakar, Indian artistic gymnast, Padma Shri and Arjun Awardee,said, “Witnessing the overwhelming response from the young talents gives us the strength and power to achieve the goal of creating a safer tomorrow for the future generation. This initiative is a great way to stimulate discussions around road safety involving new technologies and increase the range of solutions to tackle this impairing issue, helping the youth unleash their talent and contribute to the cause of road safety. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Toyota for organizing this hackathon and involving students to develop innovative solutions,emphasizing on the importance of road safety to make Indian roads safer.”

Congratulating all the participants, Mr. Vikram Gulati, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility & Public Relationssaid, “Safety is of utmostpriority for all of us at Toyota and we believe that every citizen playsa key role, regardless of their age group, increating a safety ecosystem.Since 2007, Toyota has been consistently and proactively engaging with stakeholders through its various Road Safety initiatives and pan-India campaigns.

This one-of-its-kind initiative organized in association with Indian Road Safety Campaign is an amalgamation of knowledge,talent and technology aiding the cause of Road Safety. With the best of the young minds from the country and support of IIT students & faculties coaching and mentoring the students, we are trying to develop implementable solutions which can help in addressingthe serious concerns we face on the Indian roads, today. Children are the future of our country and it is pertinent to involve them at an early stage as it helps in inculcating responsible driving and safe behavior on the roads. We take this opportunity to congratulate the winners and thank all the participants for their efforts. We are confident the solutions presented today will effectively help us further strengthening our goal of achieving zero traffic fatality.”

He further added, “Taking this commitment towards road safety a step further, Toyota launched its global corporate initiative, Start Your Impossible (SYI), to achieve the ultimate goal of zero traffic fatality. It is through these initiatives that Toyota is committed to achieving a safer, more sustainable and mobile world for everyone.”

“Start Your Impossible” marks Toyota’s commitment to support the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable society in which everyone can challenge their impossible. SYI is also inspired by Toyota’s Worldwide partnership with the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee to highlight the fighting spirit of Olympic and Paralympic athletes who are constantly challenging their “impossible”.

The road safety hackathon for digital solutions tocurb the road safety problems, stems from three conceptual approaches:

·      Driver Behavior (Education): Improving driver skills and building applications and/or simplistic devices that can be integrated to make driving much easier and efficient targeting both personal as well as commercial drivers. Such improved and assistive technologies can prove to be highly beneficial in bringing down the number of accidents.

·      Road Conditions (Infrastructure): Bad road conditions are one of the most difficult problems to tackle with on-ground implementation because of the cost, labor and logistics needed. The objective is to look for some feasible digital solutions which could monitor and handle such problems more efficiently.

·      Violation Detection (Enforcement): A majority of the accidents are caused by rookies and unauthorized drivers with violations such as underage drivers, drunken driving, drivers without appropriate licenses, etc. The aim is to arrive at such applications that could be employed to make the task of analyzing and detecting frauds on the roads easier.

TKM has been championing the cause of road safety and driving behavioral change since 2007 with the launch of various road safety awareness programs. Some of the key safety initiatives in pursuance of its safety mission, “Safest Car with Safest Driver” are:

·         Toyota Driving School (TDS): TKM in association with its dealer partners launched Toyota Driving School in a phased manner across India. The training module integrates technical expertise along with enhancing behavioral skills to create awareness about safety nationwide. Till date, it has enrolled 8,500 plus students and aims to open 50 Toyota Driving Schools in the next five years.

·         Toyota Safety Education Programme (TSEP): As a safety leader, Toyota initiated the Toyota Safety Education Program (TSEP) since 2007, which aims at educating school children and teachers with a view to reach larger mass. Toyota has educated more than 740,000+ school children on road safety across India. Toyota is also working with various stakeholders including – schools, business partners and police to take this initiative to a larger audience.

·         Team Toyota Activity (TTA): TTA educates and sensitizes school children, teachers, parents and school bus drivers on responsible road safety habits, to create a safer traffic environment for all. It is implemented in collaboration with Toyota’s Business partners specially focusing on road safety. With seven Safety Model Schools across the country, over 6000 students have benefited from this initiative.

To ensure safest drivers on Indian roads, TKM has been conducting varied CSR projects, touching more than 11,00,000 lives. TKM recently also observed the 31^st Road Safety Week by initiating a nationwide program within the organization and its stakeholders - Logistic partners, Suppliers, and Dealers to create awareness around Road Safety and enhance safety mindset. Additionally, it donated 525 helmets to Karnataka State Traffic Police, driving the message of Road Safety among citizens.

Toyota will further continue its various CSR interventions from a longer-term perspective and development of socio-economic stature of the society, touching many more lives to make a difference in each one’s well-being.