Toyota found that many existing Sienna owners weren’t familiar with all the features of their Toyota Sienna, even after months of ownership. They also found that a bulk of education came during the sales process and the paper driver’s manual that is found in the car’s glove compartment. To speak to a new generation of digital natives who demand robust app experiences, and to build brand loyalty, Toyota set about to reinvest the user manual with the 2021 Sienna. The goal: to merge the human interaction of the sales process with the comprehensive information of the driver’s manual to create an always on assistant that can educate and respond to any consumer need.

The process began with a series of strategic workshops aimed at identifying features important to users, most frequently asked questions, and general knowledge gaps for new and existing owners. As the data began to unfold we began to see emerging patterns and potential solutions. Initially Augmented Reality stood out as a clear winner, as it would allow the user to explore their car right in front of them, aided with helpful guided information. However, with testing, we found the technology lacked substance and impact, and had multiple flaws over many use cases. For example, users could not learn away from their car, as they had to localize the 3D object tracking of AR with the car, which also showed suboptimal performance. It also was not innovative enough. Other brands had tried 3D object tracking in AR before with limited success and overwhelmingly low adoption rates. With that, we pivoted, seeking out a technology to accomplish our goals of a user friendly, always-on approach to instant availability of information the user requested and needed. And we found in Google’s Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning based algorithms, culminating in the grand solution, a virtual assistant named Joya.