By ploughing millions into Uber, Toyota eyes future of cars

(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 13, 2016 Pilot models of the Uber self-driving car is displayed at the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. - August 27, 2018 Toyota will pump about $500 million into Uber as part of a deal to work together on mass-producing self-driving vehicles, the Japanese car giant said on Tuesday. (Photo by Angelo Merendino / AFP)

Toyota Motor Corp, Asia’s biggest carmaker, is preparing for a potential future where people don’t buy cars. 

That’s behind the hefty investments that the company has made in ride-hailing providers, most prominently the US$1bil (RM4.14bil) that it poured into South-East Asian leader Grab. Toyota sees the partnership as an opportunity to get Grab to buy more of its cars and to push services like insurance and maintenance, Shigeki Tomoyama, the global head of Toyota’s connected car division, said in an interview this month in Nagoya, Japan.