The World’s Biggest Carmaker Made a Huge Bet on Tech. Things Went Wrong Fast.
livemint.comTOKYO—Toyota sells more cars each year than any other company, and it had similarly big dreams when it created its own in-house technology startup in 2021. It picked an American tech whiz to run it and envisioned building software for its cars that would become a standard for the whole industry. So great were the startup’s ambitions that one of its projects was building an entire new city in the foothills of Mount Fuji where it could test self-driving cars, robots and hydrogen for power production.
Then-Chief Executive Akio Toyoda said the new unit would help Toyota navigate a “once-in-a-century period of profound change" in which cars become electric, internet-connected, autonomous and heavily reliant on software. Toyoda said the company would be called Woven Planet, using the English words, a reference to Toyota’s origin as a manufacturer of automatic looms in the 1920s. He took a 5% stake in the venture, personally investing $34 million to show his commitment.
Now, the dreams of Woven Planet have been curtailed. While the company maintains that its ultimate vision remains in place, Toyota’s full release of software that would enable drivers to upgrade their cars wirelessly has been pushed back and the new city has yet to open. After three years of slower-than-expected progress and software that proved too ambitious to deliver on time, the American tech whiz has left, joking about the hair he has lost along the way.
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