Toyota Mobility announced a prize money winner in its international mobility competition that challenged people around the world to come up with solutions to improve the lives of folks with lower limb paralysis. Finalists from Japan, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S. were considered, but Phoenix Instinct from the U.K. ended up walking away with the $1 million prize money.

The winning product? An ultra-light carbon fiber wheelchair with some innovative features. It's called the Phoenix Instinct, and it aims to advance the generally stagnant wheelchair technology industry to make it easier and safer to use. The wheelchair uses a leveling system to automatically adjust its center of gravity and make it more stable/easier to maneuver. A power assist feature is implemented on the front wheels in an effort to reduce vibrations through the body. Finally, it uses an intelligent power braking system that can automatically detect when you're going downhill, then adjust the wheelchair's speed and manage its descent. 

Due to the popularity of the PlayStation and Xbox brand, it’s not surprising that when the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles were released there was a rush to buy them. As it would be understandably impossible for Sony and Microsoft to meet this onslaught of demand, naturally this would result in temporary shortages.

These shortages have since been taken advantage of by scalpers who are buying the consoles and reselling them at pretty much a 100% markup (if not more). Now according to data engineer Michael Driscoll from dev.to, he was curious to see how much these scalpers have made and he put together a program that scrapes information from platforms like eBay to get an idea.

DETROIT — Honda is recalling over 1.4 million vehicles in the U.S. to repair drive shafts that can break, window switches that can overheat and a software flaw.

The software recall includes 737,000 Accords from 2018 to 2020 and Insights from 2019 and 2020. A programming flaw in a control computer can cause the rear camera, turn signals and windshield wipers to malfunction. Owners will be notified in late January about when they should take their vehicles to a dealer for repairs.

TOKYO — Ousted Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn's legal woes deepened on Friday with the start of a civil trial in Yokohama, Japan, where his former employer is seeking $95 million in damages.

"The legal actions initiated today form part of Nissan's policy of holding Ghosn accountable for the harm and financial losses incurred by the company due to (his) misconduct," Nissan said in a statement.

Toyota expanded a worldwide fuel pump recall to a total of 5.84 million vehicles for a defect that could cause the part to fail. In the United States, the total number of vehicles involved in this safety recall is now approximately 3.34 million vehicles.

On January 13, 2020, Toyota announced a safety recall for 695,541 Lexus and Toyota models. In March of 2020, the Japanese automaker added an additional 1.1 million vehicles to the previous recall.

The Japanese government has contributed 2.8 million dollars for food aid in Palestine through the United Nations World Food Programme.

Representative of Japan to Palestine, Magoshi Masayuki, and the WFP Representative in Palestine, Stephen Kearney, signed an agreement on Tuesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

WASHINGTON — Nissan's U.S. lending arm agreed on Tuesday to pay a $4 million U.S. fine to settle a government agency's allegation that it improperly repossessed hundreds of consumers' vehicles.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said that between 2013 and 2019, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp (NMAC), a subsidiary of the Japanese automaker's North American unit, "wrongfully repossessed hundreds of consumers' vehicles despite the consumer having made payments" or taken other actions. Nissan must pay up to $1 million distributed to consumers subject to a wrongful repossession.

A Toyota hybrid on display at the Beijing Motor Show. (Reuters)

Nissan has delivered the 500,000th example of the Leaf to its owner in Norway in celebration of World EV Day.

More than 1.1 million people in four prefectures in southwestern Japan have been ordered to evacuate immediately even though Typhoon Haishen has moved past the region.

As of 12:30 p.m. Monday, evacuation orders were issued to Saga Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, Kumamoto Prefecture and Kagoshima Prefecture.

More than 1.6 million people in six prefectures in southwestern Japan have been ordered to evacuate immediately as Typhoon Haishen threatens to hit the region.

As of 8:30 a.m. Monday, evacuation orders were issued to Fukuoka Prefecture, Saga Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, Kumamoto Prefecture, Oita Prefecture, and Kagoshima Prefecture.

More than 1.8 million people in seven prefectures in southwestern Japan have been ordered to evacuate immediately as Typhoon Haishen threatens to hit the region.

As of 2:30 a.m. on Monday, evacuation orders were issued to:

NEW YORK — Honda Motor Co has agreed to pay $85 million (64.7 million pounds) to settle an investigation by most U.S. states into its use of defective Takata airbag inflators in its vehicles, according to a consent order made public on Tuesday.

The state probes are connected with the ongoing recalls of tens of millions of vehicles equipped with potentially defective Takata inflators that were sold by Honda and other major auto manufacturers over the past 20 years.

A 2007 Nissan Frontier with over 1 million miles (1.609 million km) under its belt has been officially retired.