Source: https://www.autonews.com/cars-concepts/toyota-develops-tech-make-evs-more-fun-drive?utm_source=dont-miss&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20231103&utm_content=hero-readmore Halloween is a big deal each year in Japan, just as it is in the U.S., and Toyota Motor Corp. engineers here might be working on some of the weirdest costumes on either side of the Pacific. They've been dressing up Toyota and Lexus electric vehicles to act and feel like strangely different vehicles — at least on the inside. For example, they've developed software that, on command, remaps the performance of a Lexus RZ to mimic several other vehicles including a Toyota Tundra, a Japanese econobox "kei car" and a Lexus LFA. They've also developed what's best described as a faux manual EV. It's equipped with a clutch, a tachometer and a six-speed shifter that aren't mechanically connected to anything except sensors but that, at the press of a button, can allow the driver of a modified Lexus UX 300e to row their own gears and even stall out their fake engine. Why would Toyota do these things? . . . Occam's Razor suggests they are enthusiastic fans of "Grand Theft Auto." Bob Wilson
