Two of Japan's most well-known automotive companies, Toyota & Suzuki, form an alliance for innovation. (Image via Daily Excelsior)

Toyota & Suzuki announce partnership in developing autonomous car

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Automotive & Equipment
Aug 29, 2019
4354
If you can’t beat them, join them. This seems to be the matter when it comes to the deal taken between Toyota and Suzuki. On Wednesday, both renowned automotive companies signed a deal that formed an alliance for innovation.

Under the deal, Toyota and Suzuki shared investment in both companies. Toyota bought 4.94% of Suzuki’s common stock at ¥96 billion (US$908 million), and Suzuki invested ¥48 billion (US$454 million) in Toyota. That means, Toyota owns 24,000,000 common shares in Suzuki.

As written on its official website, Toyota announced the cooperation with Suzuki would utilize Toyota’s electrification and Suzuki’s technology for compact vehicles. Furthermore, on the website, both companies aimed to collaborate on a “new field” which was further clarified as “autonomous driving”.

In recent years, Toyota and Suzuki – despite their rivalry – grew closer to each other. Despite the announcement on Wednesday, Toyota & Suzuki had been talking about this deal since 2016. In 2017, both collaborated to win the Indian market. In March 2019, Toyota assisted Suzuki in developing efficient machines.

Both car manufacturers are known to be racing toward green and energy-efficient vehicles. However, Toyota took more precise steps. Knowing that the development of Artificial Intelligence, internet, and other miscellaneous, joint effort is more likely to be made to share the cost.

Toyota itself hopes that by 2020, it can exhibit the autonomous car on the 2020 Summer Olympics, as Toyota sees the international event as the perfect chance to showcase the innovation. Besides Suzuki, Toyota also invested in Uber, an American online ride-hailing company.

Toyota and Suzuki’s partnership is not the only one aiming for autonomous vehicles. In July, Volkswagen and Ford also aimed to realize the concept of a driverless car in 2021 by announcing a US$2.6 billion investment in Ford’s latest autonomous car, Ergo AI. Furthermore, both car manufacturers were looking at the concept of zero carbon dioxide emission car by 2023.

In February 2019, BMW and Daimler also announced a similar agreement to bring in an autonomous vehicle.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/tech/toyota-suzuki-partnering-in-self-driving-car-technology

Business , Automotive , Industry , Japan , Future , Autonomous-vehicle , Toyota , Suzuki