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Toyota Tuesday demo'd its own version of a "smart car." The single-user vehicle, called the Smart INSECT (short for "Information Network Social Electric City Transporter"), uses the company’s COMS ("super-compact electric vehicle") system to create a variety of hands-free features.
The five-minute demo introduced some of those features, including facial recognition-based locks and verbal directions (like Siri). Users can connect the vehicle to their homes, too, so they can turn off their lights after they've already left the garage.
The vehicle includes one innovative -- and possibly annoying -- new feature: location-based advertising. Whenever a driver passes a restaurant, the vehicle will inform them of the place's deals, which could make driving past mini-malls a noisy ordeal.
INSECT is not going on sale anytime in the near future, though. But maybe, the company hints, we'll see some of the introduced features in future versions of the Camry or Corolla.