TOKYO, Nov. 5—With much fanfare, Toyota Motor Corp. in late 2015 launched a $1 billion artificial intelligence research institute, TRI Inc. in California. TRI’s research results are now being tested in next-gen Toyota cars and assembly lines but hardly any of them are put to commercial applications, giving an impression that the automaker is not catching up in lockstep with its rivals in the global competition for automated driving and smart traffic management.
Toyota’s Nov. 4, 2018 joint announcement with Softbank Corp. that invests in Silicon Valley and other hitech companies, seems to illustrate the automaker’s angst that things are not going fast enough under its direct command and that it needs to approach beyond its comfortable arms length relationships to leapfrog to the next phase of transportation.
At a press event on that day, Akio Toyota, Toyota CEO, effectively confirmed that Toyota had initiated the joint project with Softbank: When he was a junior Toyota employee, he started a used-car vending website called Gazoo.com. Softbank sounded out Toyota for a joint venture but Akio said he turned down the offer and later he regretted the decision.
Akio asked that Yahoo Japan, which Softbank owns, change his angry-looking images from the portal with a smiling one now that the two companies have agreed to pursue a joint project, a clear sign of admission that Toyota is threatening to becoming an also-run in the autonomous transport tech development race.
Softbank CEP Masayoshi Son, who spoke before Toyoda, explained why he decided to go along with Toyota with much confidence that his group companies are well ahead of Toyota in offering ride share, autonomous driving and other next-gen technologies. He said the joint project can use Toyota’s autonomous driving vehicle E-Pallet, now being experimented, as part of its platform.
The two companies’ announcement said that they will start a joint venture, MONET, ‘to help realize a safer and more comfortable mobility society.’
‘MONET will provide coordination between Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (“MSPF”), Toyota’s information infrastructure for connected vehicles, and SoftBank’s Internet of Things (IoT) Platform, which was built to create new value from the collection and analysis of data acquired from smartphones and sensor devices. By utilizing a wide range of different forms of data related to automotive and human mobility on both platforms, MONET is aiming to optimize supply and demand in transportation and, ultimately, to launch Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) businesses capable of resolving social mobility issues and creating new value,’ the announcement said.
Translation: Toyota will supply vehicle and hardware for creating a next motor vehicle mobility society and Softbank will be in charge of the society’s infrastructure – applications, software, and so on. Translation II: Toyota would become a hardware supplier like most Japanese electric/electronics manufacturers, which dominated the world market in the 1 980s and 1990s, have become for Apple and other global brands. Proof that Toyota has agreed to let Softbank lead MONET: Softbank will hold 50.75% and Toyota 49.25% of the company, a rare case the automaker assumes a minority interest.
Honda Motor:
It’s not Toyota alone among global automakers that are forming alliances – for now, and who knows what comes next: Honda Motor Co. will invest $2 billion in developing ‘large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicle technology’ with Cruise Automation, a General Motors driverless car company, and GM, their joint announcement released in San Francisco said.Honda also will acquire $750 million in equity stake in Cruise, it said.
Softbank earlier invested $2.25 billion in Cruise, a GM subsidiary in which GM reportedly had acquired a commanding stake for upward of $1 billion.
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