Toyota Bets on Future of Taxis With Ride-Hailing App Investment

Seeking a bigger role in defining the future of connected mobility, Asia’s biggest automaker Toyota is investing an additional 7.5 billion yen ($68.6 million) into Japan Taxi, a cab-hailing app run by Ichiro Kawanabe, a taxi industry insider, according to Bloomberg. They will collaborate on data collection and connected taxi terminals, the companies said in a statement.

Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s president, has big ambitions for the automaker and its role in the future of transport. He has said that cloud computing and data will disrupt and present opportunities for new revenue amid a once-in-a-century shift toward connected, autonomous and electrified vehicles. Toyoda is aiming to redefine the 80-year-old car manufacturer as a mobility services provider.

Toyota started testing data-collection devices installed in 500 Tokyo-area taxis on a trial basis last year. Collecting driving data and video in real-time will let it construct dynamic maps that could speed the adoption of automated driving, among other things. Toyota aims to have autonomous vehicles ready for highway conditions by 2020, and on city streets within the following five years.

Japan Taxi’s app has been downloaded about 4 million time since its launch in 2011, and is registered with some 60,000 taxis, equivalent to approximately one in every four operating nationwide, according to a statement. Toyota is also working with Nihon Kotsu to speed up the adoption of “JPN Taxi,“ a new taxi model by the automaker that resembles London’s black cabs.