Toyota and Softbank announced they started to work together to build a network of mobility service using autonomous technology.
Personally, I anticipate this alliance will work well because of not the development of new battery technology but the autonomous technology. From the viewpoint of technology development, it is expected to make the development faster if a company with its own competitive know-how cooperates with another company of holding different expertise.
On the other hand, from the viewpoint of business, I see there is a significant gap which both companies cannot bridge easily. In detail, Softbank recognizes that cars are only one component of the future society, while Toyota acknowledges that cars' value is more than cars' name tells.
It can be seen that car is one of the categories in which many companies have been doing business in the past. All automobile companies have differentiated their cars company by company in the 'car' business category. However, as represented by a word, IoT, the whole city connecting everything such as people and stuff is assumed to be one of the business categories. What is the role of the cars in such a city? Some people may easily imagine that cars will become merely one of the components in the future society with popularization of autonomous cars. The businesses of both Toyota and Softbank depend on how the future society develops.
My view is that Softbank is seeking the future potential market while Toyota tries to become the first-mover in the next business market and make its car-related business more sustainable.
Lastly, I was very impressed by Toyota's way of thinking; among all products car is only one product that can be called the beloved car. We do not definitely say the beloved laptop (especially in Japan).
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