Toyota’s Direct Automatic Transmission Predicts Your Intentions

Toyota has been testing its new Direct Automatic Transmission in the crucible of motorsport, and it has passed with flying colors. At the fifth round of the Super Taikyu Series, Toyota Chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda, also known by his racing pseudonym Morizo, tested a GR Yaris equipped with the new gearbox.

After completing the five-hour race, he came away impressed and, speaking with the in-house Toyota Times magazine, said, “DAT will be a game-changer,” adding, “There’s no time lost when shifting, so the gap between myself and the pros was smaller than usual. I can just concentrate on braking and accelerating.”

During the main race at Super Taikyu Motegi, Toyoda-san set a fastest lap of 2:11.953, just 14 hundredths of a second slower than pro driver Masahiro Sasaki’s time.

But why is Toyota developing a new automatic? Like its hydrogen combustion program, Toyota’s goal here is to make motorsports sustainable, and that means sustaining the flow of new drivers, too, even if they can’t shift a manual.