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Category: Highlight

  • Toyota and Aurora partner on self-driving cars

    Toyota and Aurora announced on Tuesday plans to collaborate on self-driving car development.

    The two companies said they formed a long-term partnership to build and deploy self-driving cars at scale. Japanese automotive supplier Denso is also involved in the partnership.

    We won’t have to wait too long to see the first fruits of the partnership. A fleet of Toyota Sienna minivans equipped with a self-driving system developed by Aurora will start testing on public roads in the United States by the end of 2021. Aurora is currently testing prototypes in California, Pennsylvania and Texas.

    Toyota has been developing self-driving cars on its own for several years and has also worked with Uber on the technology. Toyota is also a shareholder of Uber.

    However, Uber sold its self-driving car division, known as Uber Advanced Technology Group, to Aurora late last year. Uber in the future will license a self-driving system from a company like Aurora.

    Aurora on Tuesday said it will be ready to introduce its self-driving system to ride-hailing fleets operated by Uber, as well as Toyota, within the “next few years.” Aurora wants to offer a full service to companies operating self-driving fleets, by covering the financing, insurance and maintenance aspects, as well as the actual self-driving technology.

    “By combining our expertise and know-how in vehicle control systems, mass-production, connected car technology, and our advanced safety support systems with Aurora’s industry-leading approach to self-driving technology, we aim to commercialize and deliver safe, high-quality, and affordable autonomous ride-sharing vehicles and services,” Keiji Yamamoto, Toyota’s operating officer, said in a statement.

    Aurora was established in 2016 with Chris Urmson, one of the early heads of the Google Self-Driving Car Project, now Waymo, among the co-founders. Another co-founder, Sterling Anderson, was in charge of development of Tesla’s Autopilot system in its early years. Aurora’s first product will be a self-driving system designed specifically for trucks, the company said.

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  • Toyota flip-flops, to debut to two electric vehicles and a plug-in hybrid in 2021

    Toyota on Wednesday confirmed plans to launch two electric vehicles and a plug-in hybrid in the U.S. this year.

    The new models are part of a large-scale electrified-vehicle push. By 2025, Toyota wants 40% of its U.S. vehicle sales to be electrified models, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery-electric cars, and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, a company press release said. The automaker expects that to increase to nearly 70% by 2030.

    Toyota U.S. electrified vehicles presentation - February 2021

    Toyota U.S. electrified vehicles presentation – February 2021

    No details of the two electric vehicles or the new plug-in hybrid were released, but a graphic shared by Toyota revealed that one of the EVs appears to be a sedan. The automaker unveiled a handful of EV designs in 2019, and last year confirmed a partnership with Subaru for an electric SUV that will likely be sold under both brands. Toyota also confirmed that it is developing a dedicated EV platform called e-TNGA, and previously said it was working on solid-state batteries for future electric cars.

    Toyota has largely avoided battery-electric vehicles, pitching fuel cells as an alternative zero-emissions technology, and continuing to push the hybrid technology it pioneered with the Prius. As recently as December 2020, company president Akio Toyoda opined that there was too much hype surrounding electric cars.

    Toyota future electric vehicle designs - 2019

    Toyota future electric vehicle designs – 2019

    Wednesday’s announcement indicated Toyota hasn’t completely changed its stance on EVs. The company said internal research showed that battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids have “similar environmental benefits.” Greenhouse gas emissions are “roughly the same” for the two powertrains when factoring in emissions from U.S. grid electricity production, according to Toyota.

    However, that contradicts what the Union of Concerned Scientists has calculated in its annual studies of EV emissions. There is almost nowhere in the U.S. where an EV doesn’t produce significantly lower emissions, even when factoring in grid electricity, according to the group. Furthermore, all-electric cars have the potential to get cleaner as the grid transitions to renewable-energy sources.

    The Toyota release also said the the automaker is aiming for “a diversified product portfolio with multiple forms of vehicle electrification” that will “let consumers choose the model that best suits their usage needs and cost profile.” So while Toyota is introducing some electric cars, hybrids and plug-in hybrids could still account for a bigger share of sales volumes.

    Toyota hasn’t sold a battery-electric vehicle in the U.S. since the Tesla-powered RAV4 EV ended production in 2014. So far, the only one of Toyota’s promised new EVs to launch has been the Japanese-market C+Pod minicar.

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  • Dodge almost made an off-road version of the Caravan

    SUVs have decimated minivan sales in part because of their rugged appearance and the promise of off-road capability, but what if you could imbue a minivan with those same qualities? It almost happened with the Dodge Caravan in the 1990s.

    First spotted by The Drive, this Dodge Caravan off-road concept was penned by Michael Santoro, who had just finished working on the Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Cirrus “cloud car” sedans at the time. Santoro would go on to work for doomed supercar maker Vector, and help hatch the Jeep Easter egg, but in the mid 1990s he was a minivan specialist.

    “One of the best parts about being in a studio that designs the best selling vehicle a company makes is, there is always interest from upper management in spin-offs and line extensions,” Santoro said of the off-road minivan’s genesis on his personal website.

    Dodge Caravan off-road concept (via Michael Santoro)

    Dodge Caravan off-road concept (via Michael Santoro)

    Tasked with creating a new Caravan variant “without spending any money,” Santoro added grille bars, side steps, a light bar, a roof rack, and blacked-out B-pillars. The design progressed far enough for a prototype to be built and shown to dealers.

    While Dodge dealers loved the concept, Jeep dealers didn’t. They were afraid a production version of the off-road minivan would cannibalize sales, Santoro said.

    Regardless, the prototype was “a step away” from debuting at the Chicago Auto Show, but “the plug was pulled at the last moment,” Santoro said. Adding off-road styling cues has helped boost the sales of other types of vehicles—just look at the Subaru Outback and Audi Allroad wagons—but could it have worked with a minivan? It seems we’ll never know.

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