MOVING INTO MEDICAL SECTOR
Toyota robots to give elderly helping hand
Japan’s changing demographics place its vehicle makers in a unique situation
Tokyo — Japanese vehicle makers are looking beyond the industry trend to develop self-driving cars and turning their attention to robots to help keep the country’s rapidly greying society on the move. Toyota said it embraced the possibility of becoming a mass-producer mass producer of robots to help the elderly in a country whose population is ageing faster than the rest of the world as the birthrate decreases. The country’s changing demographics place its vehicle makers in a unique situation. Along with the issues usually associated with falling populations such as labour shortages and pension squeezes, Japan also faces dwindling domestic demand for cars. Toyota, the world’s second-largest car maker, made its first foray into commercialising rehabilitation robots on Wednesday, launching a rental service for its walk-assist system, which helps patients to learn how to walk again after suffering strokes and other conditions. Toyota’s system follows the release by Honda of its own wal...
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