US Patent Issued to TOYOTA JIDOSHA on March 31 for "Boarding and alighting step-mounted vehicle" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,589,695, issued on March 31, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Boarding and alighting step-mounted vehicle" was invented by Hideyuki Sakurai (Toyota, Japan) and Katsuya Shimazu (Toyota, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A boarding and alighting step-mounted vehicle includes an entrance provided in a vehicle side portion, a sliding door having two door portions for opening and closing the getting-on/off port by sliding in directions opposite to each other in the vehicle front-rear direction, and a step body having a step body for allowing an occupant to step when getting on and off the vehicle. The step is switchab...