From our compatriots at Engadget:
While Americans are constantly battling each other on the highways, aggressive displays of road rage are generally
absent from Japan’s car culture. Not to say that Japanese drivers don’t get peeved, they just need a more suitable
outlet, than the American-“you cut me off, I’ll drive you into a ditch”-style. That’s why inventors at Toyota have
grabbed a patent for an emotion-displaying vehicle with hoodslits and ornamentation to look like eyebrows, eyelids and
tears, as well as an antennae that wags about, headlights that change intensity and an adjustable body height. The
resulting effect is a Herbie the Love Bug type cartoon car which is supposed to look like it is glaring, crying,
winking or laughing. This personification is supposed to help drivers express themselves and add “entertainment” to the
road. While this might work in Japan, somehow “glaring” hood ornaments just doesn’t satisfy us the way flipping the
bird would.