Toyota raises the stakes with the Woven Planet Group, a subsidiary focusing exclusively on electric and autonomous mobility.
Having shunned the move towards electric mobility for many years, Toyota is finally entering the fray with a big-bang strategy.
The Japanese carmaker inaugurated the Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development Inc. in 2018 and later unveiled plans to build the ‘Woven City,’ a city powered entirely through hydrogen fuel cells. And now, the reorganization of TRI-AD to create Woven Planet Holdings will help bring in new energy to Toyota’s core process innovations, thereby helping to regain lost ground.
Woven Planet’s motto, “Mobility to Love, Safety to Live,” clearly sums up its vision for the future— to foster autonomous mobility and ensure the safest driving experience on Earth, nothing less. According to the official press release, the group will blend Silicon Valley innovation and Toyota’s quality-driven focus to build the safest mobility possible.
Woven Planet will comprise 3 separate divisions operating under its umbrella—Woven Core, Woven Alpha, and Woven Capital. Inheriting Toyota’s advancements in technology, Woven Core will venture into creating top-class autonomous driving systems. Woven Alpha will focus on innovation and new product ideas, while Woven Capital will leverage investment and partnership resources, basically allowing the other two divisions to do their job.
Ex-Google roboticist James Kuffner will head Woven Planet Holdings as its CEO. The group’s key executives will also include founding family heir Daisuke Toyoda.
Industry leaders like Volkswagen, General Motors, Stellantis, Tesla, and technology giants such as Apple, Amazon, Baidoo, are already making strides in electric mobility. Only time will tell if Woven Planet can outplay the heavy competition.
