Automatic Shut Off should be available soon.
Toyota takes safety to a new level. The company claims it is “relentless in its commitment to safety.” Two new safety features, the appropriately named Automatic Park and Automatic Shut Off, will be standard on all Toyota vehicles starting in 2020.
Both systems are fairly self-explanatory. Automatic Park detects when the driver leaves the vehicle and does not shift into park. It will automatically do this. It only applies to Toyota products that have an electronic shifter and/or electronic parking brake. This excludes current models such as the 4Runner, Land Cruiser and 86 with traditional shifters. Toyota claims that this new equipment will prevent vehicles rolling away.
The Toyota Smart Key and Automatic Shut Off work together to notify the driver when the engine’s still running. If the engine is left running for too long, Automatic Shutoff will stop it. Toyota isn’t quite clear about what “a predetermined period of time” means, but it promises smartphone compatibility in future as an additional safety measure.
Toyota has added automatic park and shut off to its already impressive list of safety equipment. Toyota Safety Sense is standard equipment on most of the manufacturer’s vehicles. It offers pre-collision avoidance and lane departure warning as well as automatic emergency braking.
Toyota has not yet specified when these new features will be available to 2020 models. We expect this feature to be available before the end, though there are already a few 2020 Toyota models on sale in the U.S.