About two months ago we reported a collection of luxurious and exotic machines that were involved in a bizarre accident in Japan that claimed at least eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini, a Nissan Skyline and a Toyota Prius.

The exotic car crash occurred on the Chugoku Expressway out in the Yamaguchi Prefecture and fortunately only ten people were hospitalized with just minor injuries.

Now a video of the aftermath from that accident has surfaced and it appears that Japan is now home to at least two parking lots full of fine machines just sitting and rotting. This accident is now being dubbed “the world’s most expensive car pileup” with an estimated combined cost of $4-million in damage.

Take a closer look at the Italian carnage after the break.

[Source: Carscoop]

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We might become cautiously optimistic about Toyota if these reported order numbers continue to grow exponentially. It was just the end of December that we got reports that the Toyota Prius c in Japan (known as the Toyota Aqua) had reached 60,000 orders; and now just a little over a month later, they have reached 120,000 orders for their new compact hybrid sedan.

And without the Prius c even hitting American dealerships yet, Toyota can call the vehicle a success considering they have 10 times the order of their monthly sales target of 12,000 vehicles in Japan. Now their biggest issue is whether or not they wish to increase production in order to meet the overwhelming demand in Japan.

It’s probably no surprise that the Aqua is such a huge success in Japan. The standard Prius was the best-selling car in Japan last year, and despite the setbacks encountered through the tragic earthquake and tsunami, Toyota still managed to sell more than 250,000 Priuses.

GALLERY: Toyota Prius c

[Source: Reuters]

You would probably expect a Berlin police officer to go out and patrol in an Audi, a Mercedes, an Opel, or even a VW, but how about a Toyota Prius?

The Berlin government calls it “Initiative 120″, an effort to sport an eco-friendly fleet of police vehicles that will all have emissions outputs of less than 120 g/km; Hence the name “Initiative 120″. Just three Prii have been delivered to the fleet so far, with 11 gas conscious vehicles being introduced for the first phase of the initiative. The other nine police hybrid or EV vehicles being introduced to the force are the Opel Ampera extended range EV, the Renault Fluence sedan Z.E and Kangoo Van Z.E., and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV hatchback.

The Berlin police said in a statement that this is only the beginning of the program, and they plan on introducing more eco-friendly cars to their fleet in the future.

We’ve seen a lot of strange things come out of Japan’s aftermarket over the years, but this might be the most ridiculous thing yet. Relax Cabin, a Japanese aftermarket company, specializes in camper conversions and apparently thought Toyota Prius owners would have a demand for such a thing.

We guess there’s a remote possibility that someone that owns a Prius would be interested in something like this, but given that the conversion adds over 20-inches to the length of the car and 22-inches to the height, we’re guessing all aerodynamic tweaks Toyota made to make the Prius as fuel efficient as possible has gone out the window. The massive structure is made from reinforced plastic, and we reckon that it isn’t light, further killing the mpg the Prius is made for.

But those that are interested in giving their Prius a whole new world of versatility also has some options available to them. The Prius’s back seats can drop down to make enough space for a double bed while the top compartment can also house another double bed. If that wasn’t enough, you can add a retractable coffee table or side sofa to your Prius camper van.

We never thought those three words would be used legitimately in the same sentence. Prius. Camper. Van. Sigh.

GALLERY: Relax Cabin Toyota Prius Camper Van

GALLERY: Relax Cabin Toyota Prius Tokyo Auto Salon 2012

Google’s mission towards to mass market autonomous vehicles took another step forward this week when they were granted a patent for a method of controlling the self-driving car. The patent details how the vehicle can transition from being human-driven to autonomous mode.

The technology raises an interesting thought, where the car could transition to autonomous mode on a section of road that’s dedicated to self-driving cars. Obviously we’re quite a ways out from having all of our roads populated with autonomous vehicles, but by being able to recognize a bar code or a radio tag, a vehicle could switch modes safely – especially knowing that all the vehicles around it are using the same technology.

While a lot of people are skeptical as to why Google is even pursuing this endeavor, we believe in the sake of pushing technology forward, Google is doing everyone a favor. Google of course stands by their desire to ”help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time, and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.”

Even cooler is the fact that the patent outlines how a vehicle could receive instructions from an Internet address over a wireless network. This could be pretty scary in the wrong hands, that’s for sure. We’re still waiting for the day that our Toyota Prius drives itself to a nearby McDonald’s while telling us the specials that it has for that day. Talk about the possibility of intrusive advertising.

[Source: CNet]

Out in Germany, a new vehicle must be inspected after three years by the TÜV, similar to America’s state-level emissions and inspection process (albeit much more rigorous). After that, residents of Germany then have to get their vehicles inspected every two years and each visit involves an extremely thorough inspection of your vehicle.

Failing the inspection means you have to get it fixed immediately. Fail it again and you won’t receive an inspection sticker and your vehicle will not be permitted to be driven on the road. So with all these vehicles coming in and out for inspections every year, there’s got to be a ton of good ‘ol data waiting to be reported right? Of course, it’s called the TÜV-Report and it won’t be published until December 16th. But of course we have the Internet and those dates mean nothin’ to us!

Between July 2010 and June 2011 an overwhelming 7,779,312 cars were inspected and The Truth About Cars decided to publish the results from all the new cars that got their first inspection after three years, and the results from 10-11 year old cars. At the top of the new car list was Toyota‘s Prius with 1.9-percent complaints, while tied for second place was Toyota’s Auris and Mazda‘s 2. Tied for fourth (and really just rounding out the top five) was Porsche‘s Boxster/Cayman and VW‘s Golf Plus. And at the very bottom of the new car list? Say hello to Dacia’s Logan. This is the second time in a row the Prius has taken the top spot.

Now for the 10-11 year old cars, Porsche’s 911 took the top spot while Toyota’s Rav4, Yaris, and Avensis came in second, third and fourth respectively. Rounding off the top five was Mazda’s MX-5. It’s not a huge surprise that Porsche’s older cars stay on top of the list, with Germans treating them with pristine care and service. The 911 also topped the 6-7 year old bracket and the 8-9 year old bracket. And at the bottom of that list? Ford‘s Ka takes those honors with an astonishingly high 38.9-percent complaint rate. That means more than one out of three Kas leave the inspection without a decal – yikes.

[Source: The Truth About Cars]

Toyota is looking to ride their successful Prius wave to the future, hoping to revive its US sales that has taken a hit thanks to heavy recalls and the tragic earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. With two new Prius models on the horizon, Toyota also announced they’ll be entering new market segments with hybrids, including big pickups.

Reports are coming in that Toyota could double the number of hybrids sold in North America to 400,000 by 2015 and could help shift hybrid production to America, helping fight against the rising yen. More interesting is that Toyota expects to finish a prototype hybrid pickup system sometime next year that they’re currently working on with Ford.

Toyota also expects the Prius hybrid family to surpass the Camry in the second half of this decade as Toyota’s top-selling nameplate. Ultimately however, their goal is to hit 1.2-million units in annual hybrid sales by 2015, almost double from the 690,000 last year. They’ll also be looking towards expanding their current models to offer hybrid variants while continuing to shift from nickel-metal hydride to lithium ion batteries in their hybrids.

[Source: Automotive News]

Subaru‘s BRZ GT300 race car is looking fabulous on the track, but we couldn’t help but wonder where Toyota‘s GT 86 race car was at the Tokyo Motor Show. Apparently nowhere, maybe not even on the minds of Toyota engineers responsible for their GT300 race car.

Rather than usher in a new era of racing with their GT 86 sports coupe, Toyota has decided to go a different route, with their Prius hybrid. Yes, you read that right, Toyota is opting to market their Prius in the Super GT racing series rather than their new GT 86, and we have to admit it’s a pretty interesting choice.

We’re more interested to see what powerplant and drivetrain will end up underneath the hood in order to compete with the other 300-hp vehicles in the GT300 class.

The rendering comes courtesy of Auto Sport Magazine and appears to be what Toyota is preparing for the 2012 Super GT season. Also according to the publication, Team APR will be responsible for building the Prius race car, the same team that entered a pair of Corolla Axio GT race cars this year.

[Source: Jon Sibal]

An bizarre accident over the weekend in Japan severely damaged 14 cars, eight of which were Ferraris. The other vehicles involved in the smash-up include three Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini, a Nissan Skyline and a poor little Toyota Prius. According to the news report, a caravan of foreign car enthusiasts were heading from Hiroshima to Kyushu when one of the Ferrari drivers hit the median while trying to overtake a car on the wet, curved road.

Fortunately no one was seriously hurt in the crash, but it’s a sad sight to see all these exotics demolished the way they are. From what we can tell in the video, there were multiple F355s, F430s, an F360 and some form of an F512. Even worse, the accident shut down the road for six long hours as officials tried to determine exactly what happened.

Check out the news report from Japan below:

[Source: Jalopnik]

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The head of Toyota‘s Prius program thinks that Toyota will be able to sell as many as 1 million hybrids anually by 2015. Satoshi Ogiso, who was responsible for developing the original Prius, said that hybrids could sell as many as 2 million units by 2020.

Toyota Hybrid sales topped out at 690,000 in 2010, and many felt that if it weren’t for March’s earthquake and tsunami, the pace of sales would have accelerated even further. Prius sales (including the Prius c, Prius V and other variants) will account for half of hybrid sales.

Ogiso said that model line-up expansion would be kept under control for the Prius, but some expansion may occur. A sports car model was also hinted at, but appears to be some ways off.

[Source: Automotive News]