Toyota Kirloskar Motor launches its first Driving School in East India in Kolkata

Fifth Toyota Driving School in India. Promotes Drive Right, Drive Safe culture on roads.

India CSR Network

KOLKATA: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the launch of  the company’s first “Toyota Driving School” in Eastern India at Kolkata in pursuance of its safety mission of ‘Safest Car with Safest Driver’. Managed by one of Toyota’s leading dealership, Topsel Toyota, this is the company’s first Driving School in East and fifth in India.

Present at the occasion were Suvendu Adhikari, Transport Minister, West Bengal, Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Honorable Transport Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Ashok Manaktala, Dealer Principal, Topsel Toyota, Amit Manakatala, Director, Topsel Toyota and N. Raja, Senior Vice President & Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor. Launched in line with company’s safety mission, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has launched four other driving schools across India in Kochi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai to improve safety culture in the country.

Launched in line with the company’s vision of “Safest car with safest driver”, ‘Toyota Driving School’, one of its kind in the country, will ensure extreme importance on making every student a responsible and safe driver. The curriculum will be a comprehensive driver training program that will boast of high quality and practical and futuristic training models like the driver simulator mechanism which is expected to deliver the “Etios Experience”. To make this experience as realistic as possible, Toyota has incorporated features like IP, steering, and seats of an actual Etios car.

The Curriculum will comprehensively cover the following topics:

1. Traffic management, rules and discipline.
2. Safe and right driving concepts
3. Manners and responsibilities of a driver
4. Simulation of driving on real vehicle before getting onto road
5. All aspects of practical driving on road
6. Driving on various road and climate conditions
7. Know your car – Basic maintenance and repairs
8. Emergency handling
9. Systematic evaluation and feedback

Commenting on Toyota’s role in managing the Driving School Ashok Manaktala, Dealer Principal, Topsel Toyota Kolkata said, “It is a pleasure for us to partner with Toyota in contributing towards improving road safety and traffic in Kolkata. With the growing population in the city, traffic safety has become a crucial concern in the city.  Careless driving, over speeding, not adhering to traffic rules has increased the vulnerability to road traffic accidents leading to fatalities and injuries. We are confident that Toyota Driving School with Toyota’s world-class know-how, professional trainers and a comprehensive curriculum, will be able to inculcate a safer and cautious driving behavior amongst the people in our city”.

On this occasion we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to honorable Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari for being part of this launch and extending his kind support  for this initiative”. He further added.

N Raja, Director and Senior Vice President, Marketing and sales, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said “We are delighted to launch our first driving school in East India at Kolkata.  According to statistics of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, West Bengal is among 13 states in the country recording maximum number of road mishaps.  As Safety leaders in the industry it is our primary mission to ensure safest cars with safest drivers in the country and significantly reduce the traffic accidents with our safety initiatives. We believe the launch of Toyota Driving School is an opportunity for us to come closer to you with a solution to road safety concerns of the city. It is not “just another driving school” for getting a driving license but it’s much more of a place that follows a comprehensive approach ensuring that every single student becomes a responsible driver on road and a safety ambassador.

Everyone deserves to be safe and this is what drives us to make great cars which stand for safety and quality. We at Toyota are not only committed to ensuring safer driving experience to everyone but are also confident that our Toyota Driving School will set a new standard for quality driving and traffic safety.” He further added

The simulator, a key part of the teaching program, is expected to provide hands on experience. Learners can practice all car controls like steering, accelerator, brake and gear shift before they take the actual vehicle on the road. The simulators can also create various road and weather conditions like fog, dim light, uphill and downhill terrain. While there will be a standard learning package for beginners, ‘Toyota Driving School’ will also offer the flexibility of additional learning modules so that learners can design a curriculum of their choice.

Besides, the simulator also has several credits, it is the first car simulator in India with Full High Definition Computer graphics in an immersive Curved Projection environment, and it is the first simulator in India with real complete car cabin along with actual car gear. In addition, it also offers extensive local language support for effective training and extensive sessions for both Novice and advance drivers.

With the launch of Toyota Driving School across India, the company aims to bring down the rising number of road accidents caused majorly due to human error.  The training module will integrate technical expertise along with enhancing behavioral skills to create awareness about safety nationwide. By 2020 we plan to cross 50 such schools across India, voicing our traffic safety commitment, louder. We will be launching another six driving schools across India by 2017 and train around 5000 students to be a highly skilled driver and safety ambassador.

In pursuance of its deep rooted safety mission, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has been consistently engaged in Road Safety initiatives since 2005 through various pan India campaigns.  Apart from the commitment to building the safest cars, the company has an all- encompassing Safety Program to address road safety challenges in India. The company has engaged with over 6.5 lakh students across India through its “Toyota Safety Education Programme” which aims at educating school children and teachers through one-day training programs and participates in Government initiatives to create awareness on traffic safety.

To ensure safest drivers on Indian roads, TKM had conducted Driver Training Programs in the Bangalore International Airport and Delhi International Airport as part of the road safety awareness month in January 2016 with over 3000 drivers participating in the campaign. Significant number of drivers were diagnosed with vision problems during the health checkup and provided free spectacles by TKM. Through this initiative Toyota aims at creating a strong road safety sense amongst the drivers, and encourage them to adopt safer driving practices. TKM extended dedicated support to the Road Safety Week organized by the Bangalore Traffic Police Department, in January 2016.  This initiative with the theme Road Safety – Time for Action saw an active participation from over 20,000 children from schools across the city. 18 alcohol meters were donated by TKM, which was handed over to Bangalore Traffic Police Department.

Safest Cars: Etios was first in its segment to standardize Air bags in driver and passenger side. The company went set a safety benchmark with “The New Platinum Etios’, being in  the first in the industry to standardize Anti-Lock Braking System with Electronic Brake-force Distribution across all Toyota models & in all grades. Additionally, there are also new dual ISOFIX child seat locks for all models & all grades, added to ensure safety of children. Testament to its position as one of the segment leaders in terms of passenger safety, the Etios was presented with the coveted 4 Stars in Global NCAP Crash Test adult occupant safety for the year 2016.

Toyota intends to further reiterate these values and inculcate traffic discipline and road safety among citizens. Toyota has developed computer-based virtual human models, known as THUMS, to analyze and simulate situations that are closer to the actual accident. THUMS is a millennial crash test dummy. Designed as an experimental virtual model of the human body, THUMS functions with organs, bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscle. It is computer animated with 80,000 cyber parts, including a heart – to pinpoint precisely which parts of the body are affected, and how, by various high-impact accidents.