No, Toyota Didn't Invent The QR Code, But It Is Connected - Here's How

The QR or Quick Response code is one of those curious little technological aspects of our lives that we've just become accustomed to. We don't often question these monochrome marvels, or where they came from. You might have heard it stated that Toyota invented the QR code. This is one of those often-repeated tidbits that has a kernel of truth to it, but gets the key facts rather wrong. The creator of the QR code, in actuality, was Masahiro Hara. It was designed, as were so many of the best inventions, to meet a specific need. Hara is quoted by Road & Track as explaining that Japan was suffering through a recession in the early-to-mid 1990s, and that the auto industry was one that had to change the way it worked in order to meet the challenge. Doing this, according to Hara, meant that "companies ... had to manage a large variety of parts and were required to store more information on one product in their system." 

This meant that a lot of barcodes had to be scanned, approximately 1,000 daily, by staff at the factories. A similar yet more capable and versatile way to store such data was sought. Hara was at the forefront of the QR code's development in his work with Denso Wave, a robotics and automatic data capture company. Toyota, maker of such successful models as the Tacoma, has owned a significant stake in the broader Denso Corporation (24.2% stock prior to a sale in November 2023 that reduced this to approximately 20%). When the QR code was introduced in 1994, then, it was not strictly Toyota that did so, but a subsidiary.

The QR code, then, is a Denso Wave creation. Today, they're used for all sorts of purposes, such as replacing physical menus in many restaurants (much to the chagrin of non-smartphone users). We can scan a QR code on a laptop or even turn our Wi-Fi passwords into QR Codes. In terms of their relationship with Toyota, many drivers of the Japanese brand's vehicles use them during setup of the MyToyota App, in the process of which the Toyota Smart Connect system allows generation of a QR code. At the initial introduction of the QR code, however, Toyota was one of the first manufacturers to benefit, through its close association with Denso. 

In the auto manufacture world, QR codes on specific vehicle components help prevent interruptions to the process, pass along the vital data with less work on the staff's part than older barcodes, and are a huge help in locating particular pieces or batches when necessary. At a time when efficiency was especially paramount, Masahiro Hara and the team at Denso Wave introduced a code that was capable of storing far more data: Where a barcode is limited by its ability to store only about 20 characters, Denso Wave boasts that the QR code it pioneered held 7,000, while scanning much faster to boot.