Toyota’s Take On Transit Of Old Is An Electric Idea
The winner of the official Best in Show Award at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a self-driving electric box on wheels.
Toyota’s e-Palette is a concept vehicle which the Japanese giant suggests can be adapted in multiplicity of ways for a wide spectrum of uses.
Some of the partners it is working with to develop the product, Amazon, Uber and Pizza Hut, indicate what their engineers have in mind.
The marketing pitch at the exhibition suggested that an e-Palette would be idea for a range if purposes from carrying goods between warehouses and ride-sharing to work to dropping off deep pan Margheritas around town.
There were also some wackier ideas, like its use as a single mobile hotel room.
Presumably, if you have someone to stay but no spare room, you can just call up one those to drive itself along and park on your drive for the night, then send it packing in the morning after you paid it from your smartphone.
Well, it could catch on, I suppose. The e-Palette appears to be a futuristic take on the highly adaptable Transit of old, which was turned out variously as a small removal van, tradesman’s carry-all, minibus, pickup truck and more.
Like Ford’s classic commercial vehicle, Toyota’s brainchild would be produced with the same look but in various lengths, to suit the required purpose, and with total flexibility for the internal fit-out.
The business of overcoming regulatory barriers to driverless vehicles on the open road, in the face of public safety concerns, is a slow one.
However, the race for supremacy in developing then is hotter than ever.
