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Toyota and SoftBank want to turn their self-driving startup into an autonomous ride-hailing service and both Honda and Hino want a piece.
ToyotaA few months ago we reported that Toyota and SoftBank announced that they were teaming up and forming a joint venture to develop self-driving car tech. Well, that's been going so well that both Honda and truck manufacturer Hino are joining up too, according to a report Thursday by Reuters.
The joint venture is called Monet Technologies, and both Honda and Hino (which is owned in part by Toyota) will contribute around $2.27 million for a 10 percent slice of the pie each. What exactly will Honda and Hino get out of it?
Well, the main idea behind Monet Technologies is to develop self-driving car tech to be used in a ride-hailing company that would offer competition to companies like Lyft, Uber and Didi Chuxing.
"The more automakers we can get to join the partnership, the smarter we can make our platform," Junichi Miyakawa, chief executive of Monet and chief technology officer of SoftBank, said in a statement.
This isn't Honda's only self-driving play either. Don't forget that the company offered $2.75 billion in 2018 to GM-backed Cruise Automation. It may seem like Honda is throwing around a lot of money, but it's still likely significantly less than it would have to spend to develop its own self-driving car tech.
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