After Toyota CEO and President Akio Toyoda announced his resignation on Thursday, he shared his advice and his business philosophy to his successor.
Photography: Yoshikazu Tsuno | Getty Images
Las Vegas—— Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda said on Monday that the company is exploring the development and production of orbital rockets.
The automaker, through its “Woven by Toyota” mobility company, is investing 7 billion yen ($44.4 million) in private Japanese aerospace company Interstellar Technologies Inc. to develop satellite launch vehicles.
The automaker’s former CEO and heir apparent Akio Toyoda said there should be more than “one car company” – referring to Teslawhose CEO Elon Musk He also leads SpaceX and is committed to the development of such technologies.
“We’re also exploring rockets because the future of mobility shouldn’t be limited to the planet or one car company,” Toyoda said at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Founded in 2013, Interstellar Technologies has conducted seven small suborbital MOMO rocket launches and entered space for the first time in 2019. The startup has yet to deploy satellites in orbit and plans to develop larger ZERO and DECA series of rockets to transport spacecraft.
Toyota said it hopes to use its experience in mass-producing vehicles to produce rockets through interstellar technology.
In the Japanese launch market, Toyota is competing with Mitsubishi, whose subsidiary Mitsubishi Heavy Industries develops and launches the H3 series of rockets for the Japanese space agency JAXA. Mitsubishi’s H3 rocket debuts several years later than originally planned and is priced to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which currently dominates the global launch market.
weaving city
Toyota also announced Monday that the first phase of “Weaving City” is complete, including housing for residents and inventors the automaker invites to the site.
Five years ago, Akio Toyoda announced “Woven by Toyota” at CES as a “future prototype city” located on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan for testing and developing emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles.
The chairman said that the mission of Woven City is not necessarily to make money, but to become a testing ground and testing ground for future technologies.
