Toyota's e-Palette concept vehicle is your self driving food truck of the future
In the future, a self-driving pod could take you to work, deliver your food, and even be your new office.
At least, that's the idea behind Toyota's latest concept vehicle: an electric, self-driving pod called e-Palette that can be used for ride sharing, deliveries, or as a mobile retail or office space.
About the size of a food truck, the pod, which Toyota says will be completely autonomous and fully electric, is meant to be customizable to fit the needs of whichever business wants to use it.
An easy use case is ride-sharing, but the company says it can also be used for deliveries and logistics, office space, medical clinics, and e-commerce companies. Toyota President Shoichiro Toyoda even joked that it would be an ideal vehicle to bring to Burning Man.
The concept is part of Toyota's shift from car company to "mobility company," Toyoda said.
But though the idea is labeled as a concept vehicle, Toyoda said the company has every intention of making ePalette a reality. The company is already partnering with Amazon, Pizza Hut, Uber, Mazda, and ride-sharing giant Didi on the concept. He said the pods will be used during the upcoming 2020 Olympic games.
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Still, we likely won't see ePalettes hit the roads in a meaningful way anytime soon. Toyota says they plan to start testing the vehicles in the U.S and other countries "in the early 2020s."
Topics Amazon CES Self-Driving Cars Uber
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
