Sharing is the future. We don’t want to own assets anymore, we just want to have access to them when needed. The earlier brands adapt to this behaviour, the better it is for them. Toyota has made a move in this direction and is now looking at helping people share cars. In order to do so, Toyota Motor Corporation will establish a Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to collaborate with various service providers. The MSPF will have various functions to support mobility services, and leverage the Toyota Smart Center (TSC), the Toyota Big Data Center, and financial services.

Shigeki Tomoyama, President of Toyota’s in-house Connected Company stated: “As a mobility service platform provider, by collaborating with various companies and services, we would like to help create a new mobility society in order to offer safer and more convenient mobility to our customers”

The key highlight of this new development is the key, or rather the lack of it. Toyota has introduced a Smart Key Box that owners can install in their cars without any modification. Anyone sharing the car will be a sent a code through an app which will be authenticated via Bluetooth when they bring their phone close to the car. The access time and duration will be managed on the basis of booking time.

For sharing services, this eliminates the need of physically handling the keys or the controlled area network systems used by most rental companies. The idea of replacing car keys with phones isn’t exactly fresh and Volvo announced a similar feature on certain car models in the past to enable sharing through Sunfleet. However, the solution offered by Toyota can be retrofitted to existing vehicles enabling easy adoption and implementation.

The technology will be put to test in a limited pilot in San Francisco starting January 2017 in association with car sharing service Getaround. Last month the Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership, a fund in which Toyota participates, provided strategic investment to Getaround.

“Our goal at Getaround has always been to empower people to car-share everywhere,” said Sam Zaid, Getaround’s Founder and CEO. “Integrating our experience and purpose-built car-sharing technology with Toyota’s activities across mobility services opens up new opportunities to Toyota customers and the rapidly growing car-sharing market.”

By easing the sharing process, Toyota will be able to get more people to share their vehicles while allowing them to recover some of their ownership costs. In markets like US where a large number of vehicles are leased, people will be more open to the idea of sharing their cars. Many other automobile companies are exploring the sharing space recognising the opportunities. Toyota is further planning to get more people to share their vehicles by creating a new financial product to enable people to pay off their car lease with car-sharing programs.

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As we reach the primes of IoT, connected cars are the buzzword for the industry. From security vendors to ground transportation firms to consumer electronic companies, the whole transportation sector is going gaga over it.

What’s the big whoop about connected cars anyway? The reality of intelligent traffic will gain grounds and is almost realized as the Shanghai International Automobile city tested it. The actual concept is a little away from veracity but it would definitely hit roads soon as we know it. So along with such developments, what really bothers us is the anomaly that would hit given these vehicles are not protected. After all, the security after thoughts are always the last ones to follow.

As of earlier today, Symantec, one of the global leaders in cyber security, announced Symantec Anomaly Detection for Automotive as a measure to issues arising in modern day connected vehicles giving them a crucial ability to gather remedial action.

Connected cars offer drivers with a sense of convenience such a V2C communication system, roadside assistance and mobile internet hotspots. While there would be an unfathomable number of connected cars being pulled by 2020, risks that would leech them could create avenues for hackers to attack and can endanger driver and passengers.

The system learns the machine’s behaviour and based on that provides passive-in vehicle security analytics that monitors all Controller Area Network (CAN) without disrupting the vehicle operations, learns what normal behaviour is and flag any anomalous activity. The system works with almost any make and model.

Automobile giants like Toyota and Honda have each announced separate initiatives last week in connected cars and artificial intelligence to stay competitive with emerging tech rivals in Silicon Valley. This move has been lauded in the ground transportation sector as they are taking a step ahead with connected technology creating a mélange of automation, IoT and smartphones.

As for Symantec, the IDC VP of Security Products specified, “As connected automobiles become the norm, security issues have already drawn attention. Driven by opportunity, manufacturers and their suppliers will partner with cybersecurity vendors on securing connected cars as they would with any other networked endpoints such as mobile devices and laptops. Keeping security top of mind will not only help ensure the safety of drivers and passengers but also build trust in the car manufactures and the overall Internet of Things ecosystem.”

The benefits of Symantec Anomaly Detection for Automotive include:

• Deeper learning of the vehicles’ behaviour enabling automakers to be warned against previously unseen attacks.
• Automatic detection of anomalies without the manufacturer setting any previous rules.
• Using minimal memory and CPU usage with analytics solution built for the ground transportation.

Symantec Anomaly Detection for Automotive is out in open and you can reach out here for more details on the same.

The concept of connected cars is a prime example of IoT where numerous vehicles come on a platform to interact with each other while coordinating with the road infrastructure like the traffic signal. They can send real-time alerts about the condition of the car when in assistance.

Advantages that the ground transportation companies can hail from connected cars are countless. These ride-hailing firms could make the best use of such technology such as imperative driver passenger safety, in-car content and services as a riding experience, advanced navigation and better on-road connectivity, fuel and cost efficiency and convenient payment methods.

Also read: 5 car technologies for the traveller of the future

This is one technology that will change the way we travel, however, some of these may be a reality soon and be found in pipeline accessible to the commons. Other thoughts on the IoT: Internet of Malignant Things.

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Uber has partnered with Toyota for a strategic investment and an auto leasing deal. The ridesharing company waged a whole new level of war in the world.

The company is proud to announce the partnership as the popularity of Toyota cars as Uber vehicles have far reaching effects which explain Uber’s financing program for Toyota cars.

The terms of the deal are kept veiled as there aren’t many but according to the car manufacturer’s release, the companies have entered a MoU and are interested in exploring the opportunities that lie in the ridesharing segment, starting with trials in countries that have lately adopted ridesharing as a concept and are expanding. This MoU takes various factors into account such a business regulations, conditions, and customer needs.

The leasing deal by Toyota will not only boost Uber’s drivers and Xchange financing program but will also boost the self- vehicle driving future for the company. Though there were no particular mentions of self-driving cars, but as Toyota, a leader in self-driving technology, is the name involved, many tech and car manufacturers have started investing in ridesharing services.

Toyota Research Institute, which was announced last November, was credited with $1 billion by the car manufacturer for the development of AI and robotics for the self-driving capabilities. Uber’s rival Lyft had gotten half a billion from GM earlier this year as a step forward to work with ridesharing companies.

There has been a slew of self-driving tech deals taking up major space in the industry by some prominent players. Volkswagen confirmed a $300 million deal with the New York-based ridesharing startup Gett yesterday morning and Apple added a $1 billion investment to the recently named Chinese rideshare service Didi Chuxing earlier this May.

Source: TechCrunch

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