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Behind Toyota’s Late Shift Into Self-Driving Cars

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by ggood, Jan 13, 2016.

  1. ggood

    ggood Senior Member

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    Behind Toyota’s Late Shift Into Self-Driving Cars - WSJ
    [if you have trouble getting the whoe story, do a search in google news and link from there]

    "In the battle for global pre-eminence, traditional car makers fear software makers will steal the auto’s soul and profitability, putting incumbents in a similar position to Chinese factories making smartphones for global brands."

    “You’re strong so long as you’re playing in your own field,” said Hiroyoshi Yoshiki, a former Toyota executive who moved to exhaust-system supplier Futaba Industrial Co. last year. “But if an unexpected player makes an entrance from a different field, and the rules of the game that you thought were rock-solid completely change, then the player that was the strongest under the old rules gets beaten easily.”

    "Mr. Toyoda said his change of heart came when he met the Paralympics athletes in 2014. They told him they didn’t want to ride bulky vehicles designed so handicapped people could easily ride or steer them."

    "The change in Toyota’s public stance was quick. In November, it said it would pump $1 billion into a new Silicon Valley lab to study artificial intelligence, headed by Gill Pratt, a former robotics manager at the U.S. Defense Department’s research unit.It hired the former head of Google Robotics—one of 200 researchers it expects to employ at the new lab—and invested $8 million in a Tokyo venture specializing in teaching machines to learn on their own."

    I applaud Mr. Toyoda on his driver's sensibilities, hands-on style and willingness to change. Appalling sense of design, but hey, you can't have everything. :LOL: Of course, they may screw this up by trying to be too proprietary.