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I am currently reading a new book titled "Autonomous Vehicles Opportunities, Strategies, and Disruptions." Was published on March 3rd, 2018. The book mainly talks about the technology and details of the paths that companies will likely use to go fully autonomous. It has sections about virtually every tech company, car company, and those in between (Tesla). But I was most struck by the section about Toyota. It was much shorter than the others and here are a few quotes:

Toyota appears to have done little in investing in autonomous driving. Its deputy chief safety technology officer publicly rejected the idea, saying "Toyota's main objective is safety, so it will not be developing a driverless car."

Toyota, the largest auto manufacturer in the world in 2016, appears not to have a meaningful autonomous vehicle strategy.

How can a company in less than 20 years go from the most cutting edge to dead last in terms of future technology. Its vision for both vehicle electrification...

Sandy Munro's company disassembled a Model 3 and this is the YouTube version . . . a short report. If you have any engineering interest, this is candy:

• F - body fit and finish
• A+ - electronic control boards, F-35 quality
• A+ - steering and suspension, "F1 prince"
• C - not designed for robot assembly, evidence of poor labor training
• A+ - 2170 batteries, 6000 ma with variation of 0.2 ma between measured cells
• D - quality a big problem

Source:


Bob Wilson

Well, at least according to this article that states that Toyota will start production of the RAV4 PHV in the spring of 2020.

トヨタ、２０年にレクサスブランドのＥＶ生産開始　電動車両を拡大 | 自動車・輸送機 ニュース | 日刊工業新聞 電子版 (Japanese only)