Toyota So Desperate For Driverless Technology It Is Giving Uber Half A Billion Dollars To Catch Up

Toyota Motor Corp. will invest about $500 million in Uber Technologies Inc. to jointly work on developing driverless vehicles, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The investment values Uber at about $72 billion, the paper reported.

Earlier this year, a group of investors led by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. invested in Uber, as Softbank became its largest shareholder.

Toyota and Uber were not immediately available for comment.

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PUGPROUD - 8/27/2018 4:16:50 PM

-1 Boost

They also announced that its too early for EV cars...gonna play catchup again soon at huge cost!

CANADIANCOMMENTS - 8/27/2018 7:32:17 PM

+2 Boost

@Pugproud, Toyota has always said that EV's are a stepping stone to the ultimate solution which is a hydrogen-powered car. That is where they have been putting their money. The Mirai is a bit dear and only available as a lease, but maybe others will follow.

MDarringer - 8/27/2018 7:46:27 PM

-1 Boost

Hydrogen technology is technologically still not a viable alternative an EV. Then you factor in an absolute lack of supporting infrastructure and implementation is decades off. EVs have won. Case closed.

SanJoseDriver - 8/29/2018 8:08:27 PM

+1 Boost

Hydrogen is just an EV with several additional components that reduce efficiency and almost no supporting infrastructure. The resources required to generate hydrogen for the lifetime of a car are also far greater than creating a battery. Think Hydrogen is already dead before even getting off the ground.

EVisNow - 8/28/2018 12:22:56 AM

+4 Boost

Considering how boring Toyota cars are and the general attitude toward driving of its customers, autonomous driving is the next logical step for Toyota. The question is why did it take so long for Toyota to join the game ?

GM, Ford, Volvo, Waymo, Tesla and countless other tech companies already spend untold billions of dollars into self driving technology, and Toyota is now spending $500M ? That's a tiny fraction of what Waymo pays for the Chrysler test fleet over alone.

Toyota is increasingly becoming the poster child of the retreating ICE age. Even the behemoths VAG and MB seem to move at a faster pace.

MrEE - 8/28/2018 8:20:53 PM

+2 Boost

Hydrogen vehicles are EV, and an alternate to BEV.
The investment is similar to others, to partner on risky technology.
Toyota was first to make today's assist technology standard across all mainstream models.