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When it comes to autonomous vehicles, the strength of the number. Honda (hmc) and General Motors (GM) have just revealed their collaboration on a driverless car project. Toyota ™ associates with SoftBank (sftby) for a freelance mobility project called Monet.
Monet – short for "mobility network" – will combine Toyota's mobility services platform and the information infrastructure for vehicles connected to the SoftBank Internet of Things platform. Monet aims to launch autonomous mobility services in the late 2020s in Japan and possibly worldwide. SoftBank will hold 50.25% of the company, which is to be created by the end of the fiscal year next April, and Toyota, the remaining 49.75%.
The companies Toyota and SoftBank both hold investments in the companies Uber, Grab and Didi Chuxing, but this is their first significant collaboration, reports Reuters. The Japanese giants will launch Monet with a capital of 2 billion yen ($ 17.5 million) and can reach 10 billion yen as needed. "The mobility business is just the first step," said Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, on stage with Toyota President Akio Toyoda. "There will be a second and a third and I hope the connection will strengthen in the future."
Honda yesterday took a $ 750 million or 5.7 per cent stake in GM's Cruise auto subsidiary and plans to invest an additional $ 2 billion over the next 12 years. SoftBank is already an investor in Cruise, committing $ 2.25 billion in May this year for a 19.6% stake. GM bought the startup, then called Cruise Automation, for more than a billion dollars in cash and stock in 2016.
At the same time, Daimler (ddaif) and Renault-Nissan (rnsdf) announced yesterday that they could expand their partnership to batteries, autonomous vehicles and mobility services. "As the industry is changing in the areas of connectivity, autonomous cars and connected services, there are many areas of cooperation for our entities," said Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan, at the Paris Motor Show. 39th car of Paris.
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