- Hey guys, this is Austin.
Every year at CES we see a lot of tech and cars,
but no one really does it better than Toyota.
So when Toyota reached out and offered to sponsor
a look at what they've got at the show,
I couldn't say no.
The biggest, shiniest new toy is known as the TRI-P4.
This is developed by Toyota's Research Institute
and is built around the Lexus LS 500h.
Unlike most autonomous vehicles, this actually looks cool.
Yeah I know, it's a revolutionary concept.
It's still heavily modified with things like
lidar, camera, radar, and much more,
but the most important thing is that
Toyota is actually taking two approaches here.
Their Guardian tech is about making
driving safer with a person behind the wheel,
whereas Chauffeur's all about
full autonomy in almost any scenario.
Now this is a big deal, right?
Autonomous vehicles are not ready
for the mainstream just yet.
There's still a lot of work to do
to bring fully driverless cars to the mainstream,
but Toyota is such a huge company,
and they span across so many areas
that it's really interesting to take a look
at some of their other investments.
I got the chance to cohost the
Toyota Untold podcast recently
to get a better idea of how this all plays out.
- Yeah, so Toyota AI Ventures
is Toyota's first dedicated venture capital fund,
and it's focused on investing in early stage companies
that are focusing on artificial intelligence,
data as applied to autonomous mobility, and robotics.
Many of the startups are defining what mobility means,
and so we are investing in those companies
that are defining mobility.
- Another cool company here is May Mobility.
Now this is actually a company who
has autonomous vehicles on the road right now
in Detroit as well as Columbus,
and this is their next generation vehicle.
So this is a version that would have absolutely no driver.
So as you can see in the front seat
I'm actually facing back toward other passengers,
and as it has all these different sensors
and as the technology develops,
you can imagine a fully autonomous version of this vehicle.
Unlike a lot of the vehicle stuff here at CES,
May Mobility actually has these on the streets right now.
So it is a slightly different version,
and it does have a driver,
so in case there's any kind of issues,
but the idea is that this is the final format
of what it will become hopefully in the next few years.
Something you don't exactly see every day
is a hydrogen-powered truck.
So this is Project Portal.
It's a collaboration between Kenworth and Toyota,
and it's a, well, let's just take a look.
Not quite like any truck you've seen or that I've seen.
This is where the magic happens.
There are six carbon fiber hydrogen tanks
which are enough to use the electric motor right behind it
to pull a ton of cargo.
This is actually more powerful that a standard diesel truck.
So now I get to explore the truck.
This may be a questionable idea.
I've actually never been inside of one of these before.
This is really cool.
So what's interesting about this
is that the truck chassis itself
is not that different from a lot of others,
but there's a lot of special bespoke parts for this one.
For example, there's a Mirai shifter here because why not?
What's cool about this is that
it actually is a proper truck too.
There is a full 300 miles of range,
and right now the prototype is actually at the port of L.A.
bringing cargo back and forth all day.
So it's actually a really interesting idea
of getting away from a standard electric
or standard sort of diesel truck
into something that's just a little bit more high tech.
By a little I mean a lot.
Hydrogen's pretty cool.
The days of a car company that just makes cars that will
get you from point A to point B are quickly ending.
Technology is rapidly changing things,
alternative fuels are rapidly changing things,
and the idea that you don't actually have to drive your car
is a big, big selling point.
So it is super interesting to see
just how Toyota is taking advantage of this
and really becoming an all new company.