After Toyota Motor Corporation President and CEO Akio Toyoda announced his resignation on Thursday, he spoke about his advice to his successor and his management philosophy.
Photo: Yoshikazu Tsuno | Ganmarafo | Getty Images
Las Vegas — toyota motor vehicle Chairman Akio Toyoda said Monday that the company is considering developing and producing an orbital rocket.
The automaker, through its mobility company Woven by Toyota, is investing 7 billion yen ($44.4 million) in Interstellar Technologies, a private Japanese spaceflight company that develops satellite launch vehicles. .
Mr. Toyoda, a former CEO and automaker heir, said there should not be “just one car company.” teslaThe company’s CEO, Elon Musk, also leads SpaceX and is working on developing such technology.
“We’re also researching rockets, because the future of mobility shouldn’t be limited to just Earth or just one car company,” Toyoda said at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Because there isn’t.”
Founded in 2013, Interstellar Technologies has launched seven small suborbital MOMO rockets, reaching space for the first time in 2019. The startup does not yet have a satellite in orbit and has plans to develop a series of larger rockets, ZERO and DECA. To deliver a spaceship.
Toyota said it plans to use its experience in mass production of vehicles to produce rockets with Interstellar Technologies.
In Japan’s launch market, Toyota is trying to compete with Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, develops and launches the H3 series rocket for Japan’s space agency, JAXA. Mitsubishi’s H3 rocket, which debuted several years later than planned, was intended to be priced competitively with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which currently dominates the global launch market.
woven city
Toyota also announced Monday the completion of the first phase of Woven City, which will include housing for residents and inventors the automaker is inviting to the site.
Woven by Toyota was unveiled at CES five years ago as a “prototype city of the future” located on a 175-acre site at the foot of Japan’s Mt. Fuji for the purpose of testing and developing new technologies such as self-driving cars. announced by.
He said Woven City’s mission is not necessarily to make money, but to be a test track and proving ground for future technologies.