Toyota unveils Walk Me, a four-legged AI-powered mobility chair that walks, climbs stairs, and folds itself

Toyota is well-known for making vehicles. However, the company is not averse to dabbling in other forms of mobility. It recently unveiled an autonomous chair, the Walk Me, at the Japan Mobility Show 2025.

Walk Me is a wheelchair with no wheels designed to help people with mobility issues get around, including braving stairs and navigating uneven paths.

The chair might look adorable with four legs covered in pastel colored legs, but don’t let the cuteness fool you. Each of the limbs is laden with sensors and actuators that allow it to bend and stretch to react to its surroundings in real-time.

Biomimetic motion copied straight from nature

Teche Blog and Designboom report that Toyota’s inspiration for Walk Me came from animals known for their ability to negotiate rugged terrain, including goats, and more appropriately, crabs. The front pair of legs calculates heights to determine how to pull the chair, and its occupant, forward. The hind legs contribute to the support and generate thrust.

Toyota’s Walk Me picks out obstacles by scanning the environment using LiDAR and radar. And if you wonder how the occupant remains balanced and avoids falling off and becoming fodder for YouTube fail videos, the robotic chair has weight sensors and an automatic stabilization system when operating on slopes or bumpy ground.

Comfort and intelligent control

Toyota has paid attention to ergonomics here, designing a seat that molds to each user’s body and features adjustable armrests. The mobile chair also responds to voice commands, so you can control it by saying “go faster” or specifying where you want it to go. There are handles for manual redirection.

Walk Me has a small display that lets users monitor metrics such as battery percentage and distance walked. The whole device is powered by a small battery under the seat, which Toyota claims can last a full day of traipsing. It can be charged easily, just like plugging in your smartphone.

For safety, the chair pauses and alerts the occupant when any joint gets too hot.

Compact design and portability

Walk Me shrinks itself and gets out of the way when not in use. The legs retract telescopically, making it easy to lift the chair for storage in your car or at home.

The walking seat is still a concept, and Toyota has not shared any plans to turn it into a product you can buy. However, it is nice to see the company demonstrate how AI and robotics can solve practical problems for humanity.