Toyota Doesn't See A Future With Mass Produced Vehicles - Only Boxes On Wheels And Ultra Luxury

As sharing services change car use and ownership, Toyota Motor Corp.'s new design chief believes that vehicles will shift towards either generic boxes on wheels for everyday use or ultra-luxury cars, wiping out the need for mass-market models.

Simon Humphries, responsible for design at the automaker's Toyota and Lexus brands, said that fleets of electric, self-driving shuttle bus-like vehicles could one day eliminate the need for people to drive themselves around on a daily basis.

This could one day make cars like its popular Camry and Corolla models obsolete down the line.

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TomM - 2/15/2018 3:25:55 PM

+3 Boost

Sharing services may be fine in Urban Areas - but as soon as you get 50 miles outside the city - they service break down to few and far between. THAT same thing is true for EV infrastructure.

WE do not have the money to keep potholes in our current roads under control - thousands of bridges around the country are just disasters waiting to happen. ANd with some "miracle" all of this will be cured - and COMPLETELY changed in a decade or two -SURE! - and Elephants will be Flying regularly!!!! (THrough genetic changes)

The people who are predicting a quick end to ICE vehicles - and major change to our transportation services in general - may as well believe in their fairy godmother too. This is going to take A LOT of time - 50 years from now ICE vehicles will still be on the road - maybe even some sold today.

Truthy - 2/15/2018 4:41:53 PM

+4 Boost

I agree with TomM. We had TV technology in the 1930s, however it took about 30 years to become a staple in most homes. The infrastructure needed to switch to self driving and then all electric vehicles will take 25 - 50 years.

bw5011 - 2/15/2018 7:28:35 PM

+1 Boost

I think it depends on regulations. We talk about crashes by self driving cars when they pop up but what about the thousands of crashes that happen every day with humans behind the wheel. I personally don't want to give up driving as I take long drives to relax, but I am all for safer highways.

Potholes can be taken care of by coding and there are some smart people out there that will figure out how to handle that as well as the barriers and any other obstacle.

SanJoseDriver - 2/15/2018 8:57:10 PM

0 Boost

The pace of tech adoption has accelerated dramatically from the 1930s. Smartphones went from 0.01% adoption to ubiquitous in less than 10 years. Something similar will happen with cars once self-driving tech matures. With Waymo, it might be closer than you think (and they are using Chrysler ICE cars initially btw).

PUGPROUD - 2/16/2018 5:21:42 AM

+1 Boost

In the end the market (aka consumers) will decide what the future will be by placing or not placing their hard earned money down. Consumers don't always know what they want at first so manufacturers will offer a variety of transportation options, some will succeed and many will fail.