Toyota Invests $500M in Uber

[FrgMstr]

Toyota is investing $500M in Uber. Why is Toyota doing this? The investment gets Toyota to the front of the line in Uber's self-driving car program. In the past, Uber has been retrofitting Volvo SUVs with its self-driving tech, and it seems that will continue alongside Toyota. Now Toyota will manufacture Sienna minivans that are equipped with Uber's tech, so no retrofitting is needed. An unnamed company will be operating the fleet for Uber. Daimler also works with Uber as it owns and operates a fleet of these cars for Uber as well.

Nonetheless, Toyota has continued to stick with Uber since its initial investment in 2016. Toyota Financial Services Corp. has been providing incentives to Uber drivers to purchase the company’s vehicles. As with traditional rental companies like Avis Budget Group Inc., Toyota is also trying to sell Uber fleet-management services based on the rapidly expanding volume of data it’s collecting from connected cars. These services include being able to monitor whether a car is being properly maintained or driven too aggressively.

 

[Rahh]

I'm actually surprised that Uber has made it through all that it has thus far and still getting a shit ton of money from investors.

 

[Probleminfected]

Toyotas in the future are ugly as hell.

 

[Uvaman2]

Those 500million would have been better off burning them for heat in dollar bills.

 

[OpenSource]

Uber is great for consumers, but I don't see how money keeps getting thrown at them when they consistently lose billions of dollars a year.

 

[FrgMstr]

Uber is valued at $62B right now.

 

[alxlwson]

Those 500million would have been better off burning them for heat in dollar bills.

Aside from attorney's fees, I'm not sure how exactly uber loses money, unless they are ridiculously top heavy. You'd think all they'd need is a PR/marketing person or two, a small team of devs, and a "face". At least for the traditional side, sans the auto cars.

Remember, Amazon bled money for years before they got large enough to support their business model. The size of the balls on the guy that went to investors every year and said, "ok, we need more money. "

 

[Wrecked Em]

From what I've seen, the majority of idiots that leased new cars to Uber professionally, leased Toyotas. I can see why Toyota is a fan.

 

[Azphira]

At least now when Uber runs over people they can use a stuck accelerator as an excuse.

 

[AK0tA]

I think that in due time we will discover that this is a money laundering scheme. It should not take 62Billion to make a company like this fly.