August is traditionally one of the best months of the year for the industry.

This August, the SAAR adjusted annual rate of industry sales was 17.6 million.

It’s the first time the SAAR has passed the 17 million mark since 2006.

This month, Toyota was the number one retail manufacturer…by nearly 30,000 units.

Camry was the number one mid-size and Corolla number one compact.

We had our best SUV month in our history, led by nearly 36,000 RAV4s, which this month actually out-sold Corolla.

So I am the sales guy and this has been a big day for us in sales.

But I am really here tonight for a different reason.

As you’ll hear tomorrow, we at Toyota believe that rapidly emerging technologies will have a profound effect on automotive safety over the next 5-10 years.

But more than the introduction of one new system, the most important step will be the spread of these technologies across the vehicle fleet.

That is why we are so committed to expanding the use of advanced safety technology across our product line.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that we think it offers an excellent value proposition for our customers as well.
Many of you are aware of Toyota’s star safety system; a package of safety features, including vehicle stability control, we have provided across our entire line-up since  late 2009.

Very soon we will accelerate the introduction of all-new multi-feature active safety systems….that include pre-collision to the U.S. market.

In fact, our goal is to be the world’s first full-line manufacturer to offer such a package on all of its vehicles across our entire Toyota lineup, driving down costs to customers from luxury vehicles, to trucks and SUVs, to our most affordable compacts.

We plan to begin the rollout of these technology packages in 2015, and hope to have them widely available across our product line by 2017.

We’ll have more details on the technologies that will be included in this important safety package soon.

But – as you can see – we’re really excited about what this means for our customers and our ability to help lead the industry forward on automotive safety.