CES 2018: Toyota launches New Mobility Ecosystem and Concept Vehicle

LAS VEGAS: Toyota has launched a new mobility service business alliance and e-Palette Concept Vehicle designed to meet the demands of future multi-mode transportation and business applications.

Unveiled at CES, the new e-Palette Alliance will leverage Toyota’s proprietary Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to develop a suite of connected mobility solutions and a flexible, purpose-built vehicle.

The new alliance will create a broad-based ecosystem of hardware and software support designed to help a range of companies utilize advanced mobility technology to better serve customers.

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Launch partners include Amazon, DiDi, Mazda, Pizza Hut and Uber, who will collaborate on vehicle planning, application concepts and vehicle verification activities.

In the near term, the Alliance will focus on the development of the new e-Palette Concept Vehicle, also unveiled at CES.

The concept reflects one of Toyota’s visions for Automated Mobility as a Service (Autono-MaaS) applications.

It is a fully-automated, next generation battery electric vehicle (BEV) designed to be scalable and customizable for a range of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) businesses.

The e-Palette Concept Vehicle’s open vehicle control interface and a set of software tools will allow partner companies to install their own automated driving system and vehicle management technology.

When a partner company’s automated driving system is installed, Toyota’s Guardian technology will act as a safety net to help ensure appropriate operation.

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Main Features

Extensive interior space with a low floor/cube shape design

There are three sizes of e-Palette Concept, with different lengths* (depending on the purpose-built specification). Thanks to a flat and extensive barrier free interior space layout designed with a low floor, equipment can be installed in accordance with the user’s needs, such as ride sharing specifications, hotel room specifications and retail shopping specifications.

Next-Generation vehicle control interface

Vehicle control technology is being used as an interface for technology providers. Technology providers can receive open Application Programming Interface (API) such as vehicle state and vehicle control, necessary for development of automated driving systems (automated driving control software and cameras/sensors, etc.). The e-Palette Concept also leverages the power of the MSPF to enable over-the-air updates of the automated driving systems.

MSPF Enabled

Vehicle information is gathered from the Data Communication Module (DCM) fitted to the e-Palette Concept and accumulated in the Toyota Big Data Center (TBDC) through a global communication platform. The e-Palette Concept will capitalize on this vehicle information to support a variety of finance options, as well as high-level maintenance in cooperation with Toyota dealers. The API required by service providers, like vehicle state and dynamic management, can be viewed on the MSPF.