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 ha...