Hit by a record earthquake in March, Toyota has been fighting an uphill battle of limited parts and reduced production levels. Production levels at its North American plants are recovering faster than expected and Toyota anticipates a return to normal operations this September - two months earlier than originally anticipated.

On June 6, Toyota returned to full production of the Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Sienna, and Toyota Highlander. The automaker expects the Toyota Tundra, Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota RAV4 to follow closely behind these eight vehicles, resuming normal levels by the September target.

"I'm doing back flips," says Bob…

Facebook might be the fastest growing social network, but there are hundreds of niche variants popping up everywhere. Taking a page from this trend, Toyota is pairing up with Microsoft and San Francisco based Salesforce.com to set up an exclusive social networking site called "Toyota Friend". It's primary objective is to allow drivers to interact with their cars as they would Twitter or Facebook.

"Toyota Friend" was demonstrated in a Tokyo showroom where…

In February, Toyota invited consumers to share their ideas on how to apply one of five specific Toyota technologies to a cutting-edge invention used outside of the auto industry. The technologies were; Total Human Model for Safety [T.H.U.M.B.S.], Solar Power Ventilation System, Hybrid Synergy Drive [HSD], Advanced Parking Assist, and Touch Tracer Display. Approximately four months later, they had a total of 4,000 entries.

To evaluate the thousands of submissions, Toyota brought in an independent panel comprised of the likes of WIRED magazine's Keith Grossman; Stanford University's Grace Hawthorne; fuseproject's Josh…