Toyota Tacoma Has Cool New Seats for Off-Road, and a Simulator to Try it Out
Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro now comes with performance seats designed for a smooth ride, or not – your choice. Want to try it out first? Simulators will be available in dealerships soon.
Annika Carter
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When’s the Last Time You Test Drove a Car’s … Seats?
Great news. You no longer need a sports bra to go off-roading. If you’re driving the 2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro, that is. Toyota has created a new type of seat specifically for off-roading, and is designed to “make a mountain feel like a molehill,” as the company put it. These new seats, standard on all TRD Pro models, are called IsoDynamic Performance seats and feature a series of shock absorbers within the seat to smooth the ride both on and off-road by dampening both lateral and vertical movement of the seat when the vehicle’s body rocks side to side and up and down.
Even just driving down a dirt road, we have all felt how bumpy it can get. This new seat design will not only stabilize a driver’s sight lines on rough terrain, but will also reduce the driver’s fatigue on long overlanding trips.
And, the seat’s motion will be adjustable based on the occupant’s preferences and body mass, and can also be turned off – for those who just love a bumpy ride.
We Survived 8 Days in the Dirt Off-Roading at the 2023 Rebelle Rally
The 2024 Toyota Tacoma in Solar Octane Orange. Photo: Connie Peters
About That Test Drive…
Sounds cool, right? Here’s the problem – most consumers will not have the opportunity to test the IsoDynamic Performance seat on an off-road course before they buy the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. I can’t think of many dealerships that let you test drive their trucks in an off-road park, can you? Or any, for that matter.
Enter the innovative simulator: A video game-like simulator that uses the IsoDynamic seat to design to showcase how it works without having to leave the comfort of the great indoors.
Toyota calls this the TRD Pro Time Attack Simulator. Based on a standard racing simulator, the TRD Pro Time Attack Simulator isn’t equipped with a racing seat like most racing simulators, but is instead has a functioning IsoDynamic Performance seat. The simulator itself has shocks designed to move the seat to emulate the rocking of a vehicle’s body as it drives over the uneven terrain of a custom-designed trophy truck road racing course.
To create the simulation, Toyota mapped the seat’s performance on its off-road proving ground in Arizona and fine-tuned the details in its Plano, TX R&D center. The experience was further enhanced with graphics and visuals that those who love video games may find familiar. They even collaborated with sound provider JBL to create a sound experience to fully simulate a true off road drive.
The IsoDynamic simulator on display at the 2023 SEMA Show. Photo: Toyota
Where to Try Out Toyota’s IsoDynamic Seats
Toyota rolled out this simulator at the SEMA show in November, but it’s too good to be put in storage. Expect to see it at auto shows and in select dealerships when the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro goes on sale. The simulator will give truck shoppers the opportunity to discover what these seats feel like, how they work and to ask questions, including how to customize the seats for each person’s preferences. Not all Toyota dealers will have the simulator, so if you’d like to try it out, give the dealership a call first.
Isn’t it time that more in-car technology was available as a simulator experience so that you can try it before you buy it?
We thought so, too.
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