Welcome back to the latest episode of The Future of Automotive on CBT News, where we put recent automotive and mobility news into the context of the broader themes impacting the industry.
I’m Steve Greenfield from Automotive Ventures, and I’m glad that you could join us this week.
This week we have news that Toyota and Waymo have agreed to explore a collaboration on speeding up the development and deployment of autonomous driving technology, a deal that could one day lead to a new vehicle designed for ride-hailing and even bring self-driving tech into consumer cars.
The two companies in a joint statement said they aim to combine respective strengths to develop an autonomous vehicle platform, while also exploring ways to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles (or POVs).
The goal, if Waymo and Toyota officially partner, would be twofold. The companies would combine their respective strengths to develop a new autonomous vehicle platform that would be used for a robotaxi service.
The companies would also look at bringing Waymo’s technology into the next generation of Toyota vehicles sold to consumers.
Toyota noted that they are committed to realizing a society with zero traffic accidents and becoming a mobility company that delivers mobility for all.
The timing of the announcement is notable. Just last week, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai made remarks during the company’s earnings call that suggested that Alphabet subsidiary Waymo was looking at personally owned autonomous vehicles.
Waymo has talked vaguely about licensing its tech before. However, this was the first time that the top executive of its parent company spoke publicly about the possibility.
As Waymo has transitioned from a research and development program to a commercial operation, the company has sought partnership with other businesses. Waymo has a robotaxi service in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and soon Atlanta.
Historically, Waymo has handled all aspects of the robotaxi business, including the app, maintenance, and ride-hailing operations.
That changed in recent months. Waymo has hired Moove to manage its fleet of AVs in Phoenix. It has also turned to Uber to share the responsibility for robotaxi operations in Austin, and soon in Atlanta.
Under the “Waymo on Uber” robotaxi service, Waymo is responsible for vehicle testing, roadside assistance, and certain aspects of rider support. Uber manages the fleet services such as vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspections, charging, and depot operations through a company called Avomo.
What does this all mean? More immediately, we may start seeing Waymo retrofitting Toyotas, rather than the historical Jaguar I-Pace vehicles. Prior to the Jaguars, Waymo was testing with Chrysler Pacific minivans.
Waymo has more recently struck deals with Hyundai and Zeekr to develop autonomous vehicle platforms.
Longer term, it’s interesting to think through whether Toyota will one day offer consumers the ability to purchase their own fully autonomous (Level 5) vehicles, powered by Waymo.
This will definitely be a partnership to watch!
So, with that, let’s transition to Our Companies to Watch.
Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my weekly Intel Report, we showcase a company to watch, and we take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.
Today, our new company to watch is GRIP.
GRIP allows franchise dealers to conver service lane opportunities into vehicle sales.
Time kills deals, and GRIP allows you to automate critical data to identify high probability opportunities quickly, and convert your service visits into sales.
GRIP allows you to Spot equity instantly; Qualify rapidly with on-demand credit insights; Enable smarter sales with customized scripts; and Guide sales with precision—straight from your phone.
If you’d like to learn more about GRIP you can check them out at www.GripIntelligence.com
So that’s it for this week’s Future of Automotive segment.
If you’re an AutoTech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our DealerFund.
Don’t forget to check out my first book, “The Future of Automotive Retail,” and my brand-new book, “The Future of Mobility”, both of which are now available on Amazon.com.
Thanks (as always) for your ongoing support and for tuning into CBT News for this week’s Future of Automotive segment. We’ll see you next week!
