The Toyota Sienna, the successful minivan that is only available in Israel through parallel imports, has undergone a modest facelift, which includes a larger multimedia screen, voice assistance, and more—not something we haven’t seen before. There’s also a built-in vacuum cleaner that has been around for years, competing with the Honda Odyssey, as well as a built-in refrigerator.
But there is a truly significant new feature. It’s a built-in system to prevent forgetting children in the car. This is the first appearance of the system in Toyota vehicles, and it exists in several other manufacturers like Hyundai and Kia, although here it has a more extensive application.
Once the vehicle is turned off and locked, the low-frequency radar-based system, which is not harmful to humans, scans the second and third-row seats. If it detects movement in the seats, it activates the vehicle's lights to draw the attention of the owner or passersby. After 90 seconds, if there is no response, it will also honk and subsequently send a message to the owner's mobile device.
If the vehicle is turned off but not locked, the system does not activate these measures; however, once it detects movement, it will wait 10 minutes and then send a message to the owner's mobile phone. This is likely due to the understanding that there are situations where the vehicle is turned off, but people remain seated inside.
Although the Toyota Sienna is not imported to Israel by Union Motors, the official importer, but rather by parallel importers, 161 units have hit the roads since the beginning of 2024. This is quite a lot compared to the competing Honda Odyssey, which also comes through parallel imports, but only one unit of that has arrived, and both of these are far behind the Kia Carnival, which has 441 units in Israel since the beginning of the year. However, this does mean that if you are interested in one, make sure to request the updated version with the system.
Meanwhile in Israel: Remember the farce over the mandatory installation of systems to prevent forgetting children? Yes, the one that Transportation Minister Miri Regev pushed hard for, which was blocked by former minister Merav Michaeli and returned to the legislative track with Regev's return to the ministry? And not a word about the prices of these systems, which rose and fell according to the political push behind them?
You’ll be surprised to hear that officially, the installation is still on the books, and for a considerable period, it was even mandatory, so in practice, tens of thousands of offenders were roaming around, but in reality, it was never enforced. In February of this year, the regulation expired, but the Transportation Ministry and the Economy Committee are in no hurry to extend its validity. Those who suffered the rotten fish and were expelled from the city are unwilling to take risks and touch it. One of the arguments raised against the mandate at that time was that these systems would eventually become an integral part of new cars in broader distribution, which indeed has been expanding in recent years.