Topics that are rarely addressed in the media:
1. How is that hydrogen produced and distributed? If it's made from natural gas, 1) it makes no difference from burning oil and 2) we might as well run on natural gas directly with no additional loss.
2 How much hydrogen can be produced per year, at what cost, and at which EROEI?
3. Will this occur before peak oil?
4. Fuel cells were invented in the 19th century. Has something dramatic occured that they are now finally a good alternative to oil? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell

Looks that hydrogen path is expensive and quite empty so Toyota is trying to share the loss, ... sorry, the cost.

it cracks me up that they advertise using your car as a backup generator for power-outages. Something tells me anyone who is forking out 30-40K for a brand-new car isn't going to be experiencing occasional power-outages.
And holy-moley... how much money did they spend on that CES "generator" demonstration set ?!

This blows me away. I think it may be another indication that fossil fuels are almost done as an energy source.

Shohreh, Hydrogen fuel cells don't burn the hydrogen they harness the energy released when the Hydrogen combines with Oxygen to form water. So the only byproduct is water. The catch is to get the hydrogen you have to perform electrolysis of water, which involves applying an electrical charge to the water to separate the 2 gases. So essentially a hydrogen car at it's roots runs on electricity, the advantage is that you can instantly fill up a hydrogen car(like you would a gas car) as supposed to charging(like an solely electric car.

Recently, Stanford researchers were able to discover a way to split water using only the power of a mere AAA battery. Their method uses cheap iron and nickel electrodes. This means that wind power and solar power can now easily produce large quantities of hydrogen from water. I am sorry that the commenters have not been paying attention to advancements announced by Gizmag.

Shohreh, so many wrongs in your assertions. Frankly, I would be embarrassed to post that sort of propaganda.

Ryan,
Something combining with oxygen to form whatever byproduct is another name for 'burning' something. Eg C + O2 -> CO2 + heat. The difference in a fuel cell is you are using a catalyst to promote that reaction and the electron transfer is harnessed to drive an electrical circuit rather than simply producing heat.
Where you get the hydrogen from isn't relevant and sure you can use water as the source but it is far from being the most economical source at this point in time.
The difficulty with hydrogen relates to the relatively poor energy density of hydrogen unless you crank up the storage pressure to levels that are very difficult to manage safely. Every prototype of fuel cell vehicle until the last generation Hyundais and this concept demonstrated by Toyota has essentially been a giant fuel tank on wheels without the free space normal car drivers expect. Even the new Hyundai has 2 massive tanks integrated into the floor that impose on the cars space to try and match normal car equivalence.
As you increase the pressure of your storage, your costs for your distribution system get exponentially more expensive. All of the pumps and valves need to be that much better to make sure we don't have hydrogen explosions going off at petrol stations the world over.
The reason Toyota are opening up patents is that they can't see a pathway for them to generate income in the foreseeable future. It's an acknowledgment that this technology won't compete with current technologies for at least another decade or more (and I would add if ever).

awesome, now to get some H2 fuelling stations using same acerage as gasline stations, Radical & then add Tesla battery changing modules, Let do this

There are numerous possibilities currently all promising a cleaner greener future, however we we need the infer-structure to support the new variations and that is not going to happen when there is the probability the investors will loose, Toyota is hoping if they provide the path to tomorrow all will follow and they are already prepared.