Spy Shots: Future Toyotas snapped while risking life and limb
by John Neff on Apr 26th 2007 at 4:57PM 
Every so often we hear a tale of an engineer driving a development mule in public who just goes nuts. Most of the time it's triggered by a photographer taking pictures of the Top Secret car he's driving, at which point the engineer freaks and attempts to kill the offending snapper via vehicular homicide. It happened to our buddy Chris Doane last summer when a Ford engineer tried to flatten him with an F-250 mule. This time a group of Toyota engineers driving an IS 350 chase vehicle, RX hybrid development mule and an unidentified car covered entirely in camo (next-gen Prius?) reportedly began messing with some guys from GTChannel.com who were taking pics of the cars on their camera phone.
As far as we know, taking a picture of a vehicle that's driving around on public roads is not illegal, but legality aside, attempting to cause an accident is not an appropriate and measured response. Reading the account on GTChannel.com seriously makes our blood boil, since this cat and mouse game we call spy photography is something we all enjoy that ultimately helps automakers more than it hurts. Any driver acting this way on behalf of an automaker should be fired on the spot, and if this behaviour is actually sanctioned by automakers, then these companies need to reevaluate their priorities pronto. Certainly the public exposure of a development mule is not more important than the life and well being of a human being. Right?
Click the Read link to view the rest of GTChannel.com's pics.
[Source: GT Channel]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mike 5:04PM (4/26/2007)
They were just trying to give the photographer a 'pre-production service hug'
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spdracerut 5:23PM (4/26/2007)
I saw that same SUV/RX about a month ago on my way to work in Torrance. It was with a Yaris, Matrix, and something else... We drove along the same path for a few miles. I had my digi camera on me, but figured, it's just another stupid SUV, who cares?
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Illan 5:47PM (4/26/2007)
Certainly the public exposure of a development mule is not more important than the life and well being of a human being. Right?
Apparently they also forget that any person ciuld be a potential custumer for that Future Product
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Barney 5:31PM (4/26/2007)
"3. Japanese culture does not view human life the same way as Western culture. "
Say what? You want to explain that a bit further. Is this something to do with Japan providing support to the USA in the illegal war? I thought they were not there to kill and maim.
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Juan 5:37PM (4/26/2007)
Those engineers very well could have been American, not Japanese. In any case, it doesn't matter.
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abaron 5:38PM (4/26/2007)
Not to make light of those irresponsible actions, but dealing with stuff like that seems to be a monthly occurrence for me on the roads up here around Vancouver. Disgusting I tell you, it's only for the preservation of myself that I've chosen not to hit these jerks.
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Aki 5:40PM (4/26/2007)
"Japanese culture does not view human life the same way as Western culture."
And Western culture has an unfortunate glut of people who make sweeping comments swathed in sheer ignorace.
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spaceweasel 5:43PM (4/26/2007)
Out here in Colorado, we just sentenced a guy to the rest of his life behind bars for just such a road rage stunt. He cut someone off and slammed on the brakes. Extreme indifference vehicular homicide. The engineers are VERY lucky that nothing happened. I imagine that when higher ups (and not just in this car company) get wind of this behavior, everybody gets sat down for a very long talk with legal, or a very short one with HR.
And what the hell are they protecting? These spy shots whet our appetite for their cars. The last thing any manufacturer needs is the incredibly bad PR even a fender bender would bring, and Toyota can afford this sort of publicity even worse than most right now.
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abaron 5:47PM (4/26/2007)
#8 Agreed. My question is, what would have happened had the extremely camouflaged car been in an accident? Especially considering it's probably 1 of a kind or 1 of
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DDL 5:49PM (4/26/2007)
First, if they really feared for their lives, they could have stopped pursuing the mules rather than passing and continuing to engage them.
However, in the interest of the best possible photos possible they should have gotten behind the Prius and let them do the hard braking again. Instead of dodging the car, hit it. What better way to get up close photos of the car stationary!
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DDL 5:49PM (4/26/2007)
BETTER YET get in front of it and do their own hard stop making the mule hit them making the collision the engineer's fault.
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djSyndrome 5:56PM (4/26/2007)
Not so sure that's a Prius. Except for the missing glass in front of the side view mirrors, it looks quite a bit like the Auris/Blade.
Which means they were probably tailing the next Matrix.
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jon 6:34PM (4/26/2007)
this is crazy! i wonder what car the picture takes were driving also. I truly agree with autoblog here, the truth is these pictures only help toyota by sturring interest in their cars. i bet toyota google searches are up for today because of this
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Ray Fong 6:59PM (4/26/2007)
Response to #14 by jon
The photographer was driving a late model Rx7 :)
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Sam Gross 2:13PM (4/28/2007)
The RX had some diffrences. Through the camo you can see redesigned lights, bumper, and grille. There was also a lot of space above the wheels.Could this be an RX based on the Highlander's new chassis? The two have always been closely related.
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Devin 8:12PM (4/26/2007)
Maybe I'm wrong, but the first thing I thought when I saw the spy photo was that it was the new Corrola, u know, the car that Toyota was supposed to release this year, but then realized how bad it looked compared to the new civic. Yeah, that was irresponsible driving, but I am willing to bet the driver was merely trying to scare the photographer, and not actually hit him (not like that is any more excusable).
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far jr 8:38PM (4/26/2007)
Here is a smattering of quotes that were left about the 2008 Ford F-250 under similar circumstances. I just removed the word ((Ford)) and inserted ((Toyota)) so everyone could get a perspective of the different tone used when it is a domestic manufacturer in the headline. I personally think both the Toyota guys and the Ford guy should have been severely reprimanded or fired for giving the company a black eye.
And regarding this guy from ((TOYOTA))...what do you expect from a Penis Leach employee from ((TOYOTA))!!! Afterall, it's not like he's working for Hyundai...3-4 rungs up the ladder. So this is just another case of angry white-trash ...angry for the sake of being...angry.
Posted at 10:07PM on Jul 20th 2006 by Rastus
or do all ((TOYOTA)) engineers react this way? The way forward redefined?
Posted at 10:25PM on Jul 20th 2006 by bob h.
Just goes to show my tried and true rule:
Show me a big truck and I'll show you an asshole.
Posted at 11:42PM on Jul 20th 2006 by Foo
Weird.....if they are on public streets, then there is nothing that the automaker can legally do to stop this dude from taking pictures.
I guess they can illegally run him off the road though.
Posted at 8:52AM on Jul 21st 2006 by Stone
He probably got chased because the employee probably wasn't suppose to be driving the ((TOYOTA)) on the road. Sounds like another winning ((TOYOTA)) PR event.
Posted at 6:45AM on Jul 22nd 2006 by GhostDoggy
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CaliberSRT4 10:58PM (4/26/2007)
I don't see the reason to try to kill with a Toyota...we all know they will be bland anyways.
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sammy z 12:47AM (4/27/2007)
over here (australia) its illegal to take someones photo with out their permission.
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Barney 1:00AM (4/27/2007)
8. over here (australia) its illegal to take someones photo with out their permission.
Posted at 12:47AM on Apr 27th 2007 by sammy z
Same in Canada. However the actions of the driver was as bad as some drivers who have nothing to hide. He could have sued in Australia and Canada (for having his own picture taken) but unlikely.
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