TOKYO, March 29, 2019—Honda Motor Co. has joined an IoT, autonomous-driving venture of the Toyota Motor Corp.-Softbank Corp. group, MONET, moving a step away from being the only remaining stand-alone Japanese automaker, MONET Technologies Inc. announced March 28. Honda in October 2018 pledged to acquire an equity stake in General Motors Corp.’s Cruise autonomous-driving tech unit, in which Softbank has a major stake. Both developments show how desperate the No. 3 Japanese automaker is becoming in next-gen motor vehicle R&D, apparently deciding that it no longer can keep going solo.
MONET’s March 29 announcement said that in addition to Honda, Hino Motors Corp., a Toyota unit, also would join the group, which already was scheduled to embrace 88 companies operating in Japan.
MONET’s initial paid-up capital is 2 billion yen, coughed up 50.25 percent by Softbank and 49.75 percent by Toyota. It will be increased to 10 billion yen, the company’s website said. As part of the capital increase, Honda and Hino will acquire 9.9 percent equity of MONET.
Honda has been enjoying steady sales growth thanks to demand in China and other Asian markets but its sales to income has been eroding, giving its management a growing sense of alarm as the company’s automotive R&D inventory is running low though its corporate image is burnished with its success of the Honda Jet commuter jet.
Toyota-Honda-Hino IoT, autonomous driving alliance would mean that contemporary automobiles are set to become commodities even further save super-expensive name brands. Most are likely to be powered by batteries, not by gas engines, in the next few years with driving dependent on auto-piloting on freeways and other major arteries for long driving. Boring? Yes but that’s where cars are destined to.
Toshio Aritake