Safety sells, and with today’s cars well equipped to handle a crash thanks to crumple zones, crash energy management, airbags, anti-whiplash systems, and other features that are either baked right into the package or added on as options, automakers like Toyota are turning their attention to finding ways to help avoid an accident in the first place. And it’s not just active safety equipment like that which we sampled in Arizona.

Just weeks after our one-day visit to the desert, Toyota hosted its first teen driving course in Pasadena, Calif., using their employees, their children, and their children’s newly-minted driver’s licenses as test subjects to see if the concept could fly for the public on a national basis. Toyota knows that safety starts with an educated driver, and is committed to finding a way to better prepare people for the responsibility of driving an automobile.

After all, the company is already spending millions on technology that could save your skin. Makes sense to make sure you know what to do with it.

Photos courtesy of Toyota Motor Sales, USA