Six companies are collaborating to bring to life an electric self-driving shuttle that can deliver packages or people and can be tailored to particular needs.
Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda revealed the so-called e-Palette concept vehicle and announced the business alliance Monday at CES, the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas. The alliance will focus on the development of the new e-Palette Concept Vehicle in the near term. But the idea is to seek input from these various partners as Toyota develops its mobility business model.
This isn’t just about building an autonomous shuttle. Instead, Toyoda laid out a vision for a larger mobility ecosystem that aims to transition from a company that just produces and sells cars to one that handles all aspects of moving people and things from point A to point B. These shuttles could be used as mobile shops, roving around a business campus, for instance. It could also be used to deliver products to customers or as a way to move people around urban centers.
Toyota has been working to develop fully autonomous cars to serve an aging population and the disabled, and technology for regular production cars that could switch between assisted and full autonomy. Unlike other automakers that might have drivers hit a button to switch in and out of full autonomous mode, Toyota would have it operate silently in the background.
Under “guardian” mode, the human driver maintains vehicle control and the automated system would step in and take control of the car to avoid an accident. “Chauffeur” mode would take over the driving and the vehicle’s occupants would be passengers.
The e-Palette is still just a concept. But the company envisions offering three sizes of the automated vehicle with an underlying open software platform that would let companies tweak and customize it to meet their business needs.
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