The car industry is changing at probably the quickest pace it’s ever seen, and the fun part is nobody has a clue what the endgame looks like or how our electrified, autonomous mobility app-centric future will actually make money. But! Everyone is scrambling to enter the next phase of car making, and that means investing heavily in new technologies.
It’s not unfair to say the Japanese auto industry has lagged from its 1990s peak of tech, experimentation, growth and quality, so now we’re seeing various ways its automakers are scrambling to catch up with competitors as well as new startups.
Why Toyota, a massive company with more resources than most, so very behind the curve in both EVs and autonomous driving? Blame a conservative and risk-averse business ethos, for starters; Japan is the opposite of Silicon Valley in a lot of ways.
