After Apple’s recent investment in Didi Chuxing, rival Uber has entered into a strategic partnership with Toyota to expand its ride-sharing service and to create new vehicle leasing options.
The Japanese automotive company, Toyota has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the largest taxi-aggregator Uber to start with trials and then widen its reach in markets where ride-sharing has started taking shape.
As a part of the partnership, Uber and Toyota will also look into establishing new services to provide value to its customers. In lieu of the same, a leasing deal has been launched by the automobile company to help its buyers. Under this deal, if a consumer purchases a new Toyota vehicle on lease via Toyota Financial Services, then they can payback using their earnings generated as an Uber driver. Though there was no word on self-driving expansion, but it will also help Uber speed-up their self-driving effort which they have testing in Pittsburgh with Ford.
Ridesharing has huge potential in terms of shaping the future of mobility. Through this collaboration with Uber, we[Toyota] would like to explore new ways of delivering secure, convenient and attractive mobility services to customer.
says Shigeki Tomoyama, senior managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation.
This collaboration is in direct opposition to the recent investment of over $500 million by General Motors into the ride-hailing company Lyft. GM is working on a variety of projects with Lyft, including a rental service and a plan to test a fleet of self-driving Chevrolet taxis on public roads.
The automobile companies have now finally realized that importance of taxi aggregators and ride-sharing services as a part of the whole community. Also both the companies run car-based businesses and they see it as a golden opportunity to jump in and bank upon the growth, which has been proving to be more lucrative than anyone previously imagined.
