Toyota, NTT business alliance targets smart cities
Toyota and NTT have already been working closely together for three years: While the companies initially were focusing on networked vehicles in their cooperation, which began in March 2017, this will now be followed by expansion and intensification. In this way, the companies are also reacting to the changes in their business areas: While the automotive industry is facing fundamental change due to diversifying market requirements, stricter environmental and safety regulations, advanced technologies and new competition, digital services are becoming increasingly important in the telecommunications industry – from cloud-based solutions to the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence.
Whether it’s autonomous driving, robotics, personal mobility, smart home or AI, intelligent cities combine the different technologies and thus enrich people’s lives. At the beginning of the year, Toyota presented its own design for such a city at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas: On the site of the Higashi Fuji plant of Toyota Motor East Japan, which will close at the end of 2020, the so-called “Woven City” is being built. Here, all kinds of goods and services will be connected to create new services and use cases. NTT supports intelligent cities and regions with various data and the use of modern technologies.
With the new “Smart City Platform”, Toyota and NTT want to provide the basis for intelligent cities in the future. In doing so, they have their sights set not only on developments in Japan, but worldwide. The alliance is designed to bring together numerous different technical systems and organize the management and provision of relevant data. The project is not limited to technical aspects such as traffic flow optimization, pollution reduction or energy flow control, but is also explicitly intended to open up new social and political perspectives – for example, the data and technologies are also to be used to promote urban development.
Subject to the approval of the relevant authorities, Toyota will acquire 80,775,400 NTT shares as part of the newly formed business and capital alliance, which represents 2.07 percent of the company’s total issued shares and a value of 200 billion yen. In return, NTT will acquire 29,730,900 Toyota shares, which is equivalent to approximately 0.9 percent of all issued shares of the Japanese mobility group at the same value.
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