Toyota, Softbank to Jointly Develop New Mobility Services

Tokyo, Oct. 4 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> and Softbank Group Corp. <9984> said Thursday that they have agreed to form a strategic partnership and establish a joint venture for new mobility services including those using automated driving technology. This is the first time for the two major Japanese companies to forge a partnership and launch a new business. The joint company, Monet Technologies Corp., will work to "help realize a safer and more comfortable mobility society" by bringing together Toyota's information infrastructure for connected vehicles and Softbank's Internet of Things platform, the two partners said in a statement. In the envisioned business, Toyota's e-Palette autonomous vehicle is expected to be used for chauffeur and other services. The new company will initially have a capital of 2 billion yen, and the amount will be raised to 10 billion yen in the future. Monet Technologies will be owned 50.25 pct by Softbank and 49.75 pct by Toyota. It will start operations by the fiscal 2018 end in March, with a view to launching "Autono-MaaS" (autonomous mobility as a service) businesses using the e-Palette by the second half of the 2020s. The joint venture will aim to offer these services in the global market in the future. The strategic partnership comes as Toyota and Softbank are both stepping up investment and business development for mobility innovation. "To find partners is a key to our future mobility strategy," Toyota President Akio Toyoda told a joint press conference on Thursday. "The joint venture is the first shot (under the Toyota-Softbank partnership), and I'm looking forward to the second and third shots, which will represent broader and deeper cooperation," Softbank Chairman Masayoshi Son said. Toyota invested one billion dollars in major Singaporean ride-hailing service provider Grab Holdings Inc. in June and agreed in August to inject 500 million dollars into U.S. ride-sharing firm Uber Technologies Inc. Meanwhile, Softbank has taken stakes in Grab and Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing. Last month, the Japanese technology and telecommunications group and Didi started a taxi-hailing service in the western Japan prefecture of Osaka. Amid intensifying competition in the area of information technology-based services combined with automobiles, Toyota and Softbank aim to leverage their partnership to speed up the development of new businesses. END