The Toyota Prius is renowned for its endless, sometimes invasive, alerts. It can look at the direction you’re headed and notify you of upcoming traffic. It can read off your Google calendar to remind you of the day’s appointments. With their next Prius, Toyota aims to take things a step farther, and encourages you to do the same.
In the future, the Prius could warn you when you’re looking a little too fat. Toyota recently filed a patent to integrate fitness data from your Apple watch or your FitBit with the vehicle’s infotainment screen. With this information, the Prius can consider how many steps you’ve taken throughout the day, and if you haven’t met your quota, the car can recommend that you park a bit before your destination and walk the rest of the way.
Prius’ systems syncing with your FitBit aim to provide an additional incentive to exercise. The vehicle will warn when you haven’t achieved your steps for the day and encourage you to get out of the car and do so. Apparently, it doesn’t want to continue enabling your fatty lifestyle.
Of course, Prius drivers could disable their vehicles’ access to their health habit data. Do Americans need another voice to remind them that if they don’t exercise, their Dunkin’ Donuts Cookie Dough Coolatta is going straight to their ass? Fat chance. The last thing Americans need is somebody else we have to lie to about going to the gym.
Toyota has already filed more than 2,000 patents for various components of their best-selling Prius, including one for a flying car. Although it’s uncertain if Toyota will ever include these patented elements in their upcoming models, a future of flying, fat-shaming cars may be soon to come.
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