Toyota may have gotten a late jump on investing in autonomous-driving technology and electric vehicles. But since it started a race to catch up with competitors in those areas, the Japanese automaker has spent a lot of time thinking about the convergence of the two.
Akio Toyoda, the company’s president, unveiled the latest results of those efforts at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. By 2020, he said, Toyota will launch e-Palette, a configurable platform that will come in three sizes, allowing any conceivable business or retailer to transform itself into a rolling storefront.
Order a pizza? A small cart can make an autonomous delivery. Need a haircut? The barber will trundle to your neighborhood via a mobile platform. Feeling lucky? The blackjack table will pick you up in 20 minutes.
These configurable storefronts may sound fanciful, but Toyota posits that they’re the next step in a retail revolution that already has seen consumers express a strong preference for ordering online rather than going to brick-and-mortar stores, one that promises drone deliveries in the not-too-distant future.
“It’s been said there is a new gold, and software is the key,” he said Monday. “But I’d argue we are moving from software to platform as the things we are all after. This is the platform for mobility as a service, for autonomy or car sharing or any number of services we want to make possible.”
Although Toyota’s e-Palette platform is currently a concept, plans are in place to have autonomous battery-electric platforms ready to be commercialized in time for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, which would be a prime showcase for the technology on Toyota’s home turf.
The general idea isn’t necessarily new. A Bay Area company called Next: Future Transportation has tapped into the same idea of manufacturing customizable pods for passengers, businesses, and cargo, and it has already built prototypes that are being tested. What Toyota immediately adds to this notion of a rolling storefront is a group of business partners that already have ideas about how they want to utilize the vehicles.
Toyoda said the company has entered into business alliances with Amazon, Pizza Hut, and ride-sharing companies Didi and Uber to conjure up ways these platforms might be customized for different use cases. Mazda will assist Toyota in developing the underlying electric technology, the company said.
Might Uber customize these shuttles so that some will be intended for short jaunts and others for longer hauls? Might some pods bring functional office space and others cushy entertainment options? Those questions hint at some of the prospective use cases.
“We are turning our mobility-services platform into a common platform for companies to use in building e-mobility businesses,” Toyoda said. “It’s a plug-and-play platform. We believe in flexibility, and open standards are key to providing the best services to consumers.”
Other automakers could potentially be interested, too. According to Toyota, the platforms can be used with Toyota’s own Chauffeur autonomous-driving system, which allows for Level 4 automated driving. Or a partner could bring its own self-driving system into the mix. In either case, Toyota said its Guardian technology could act as a backup or fail-safe.
Toyota’s announcement reflects a broader trend at this year’s CES. Companies are no longer showcasing autonomous technology itself to demonstrate that driverless cars are possible; this year, they are adding details to their deployment timelines and commercialization plans.
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