Being paralyzed waist-down doesn’t mean you can’t drive anymore. If you have two functional hands there are a lot of ways you can adapt a vehicle to be used without your legs.
However, if adapting the controls to someone’s disability is somehow easy, getting in and out of the car makes for the hard part. But don’t worry though, because Toyota has the coolest ways of making handicapped people use their cars without breaking a sweat.
Apart from simply mounting a ramp and some hinges at the back of a minibus, the Japanese automaker has come up with very helpful powered ways of embarking people onboard the vehicle.
For example, check out the seat that actually comes out on a powered mechanical arm, turns around so you don’t have to climb you way in the vehicle. At the push of a button, the seat will slowly retract into the vehicle, safely loading its passenger in.
But that’s a solution only for those in the second row. If you want to go behind the wheel, theres another type of lift, comprising a hinge for the wheelchair and a small seat for one person. The disabled person needs to place herself on the small seat, fold and attach the wheelchair to the hinge. Then push a button and they will both go up at the driver seat level. The person can shift in to the driver seat and further press a couple of buttons to fully retract the wheelchair in and close the powered sliding door.
Check the video bellow to see additional Toyota welcab solutions, including one for the Prius c (Aqua) model.
But that’s a solution only for those in the second row. If you want to go behind the wheel, theres another type of lift, comprising a hinge for the wheelchair and a small seat for one person. The disabled person needs to place herself on the small seat, fold and attach the wheelchair to the hinge. Then push a button and they will both go up at the driver seat level. The person can shift in to the driver seat and further press a couple of buttons to fully retract the wheelchair in and close the powered sliding door.
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