SoftBank’s chief pitches a new path for self-driving cars

A Baidu Apollo driverless taxi, left, in Wuhan, China, on May 15, 2024. In China, carmakers and technology companies are testing more driverless cars on public roads than their counterparts in other countries. — The New York Times

TOKYO: Masayoshi Son has long prided himself on his ability to detect big shifts in technology early on. During his four decades leading SoftBank, a free-spending Japanese investment group, the billionaire has made some spectacularly successful investments. And some epic flops.

In recent months, Son has been laying out plans for a new big bet: self-driving cars.