Toyota ready to sell driverless shuttles that double as on-the-go offices

Toyota Motor Corp. has unveiled that it has plans to sell self-directed shipping-container-like vehicles within a few years that it says could double as a mobile store or roving office.

The e-Palette by Toyota is a transparent, driverless oblong carriage on wheels that’s powered by a battery. It can accommodate up to 20 passengers, with seats that fold up and allow the space to be re-purposed.

The vehicle began as a concept vehicle, announced at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show by Toyota President Akio Toyoda, who said it is a symbol of how he is trying to transform the world’s second-largest automaker into a mobility company, and Toyota recently said it plans to make the e-Palette commercially viable within a few years.

The Japanese carmaker had sought to showcase the e-Palette at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic games, where over a dozen of the vehicles, running on automated loops, were to be used to transport staff and athletes around the Olympic village. “We received a lot of inquiries from people wondering about the fate of the e-Palettes after the Olympics were postponed,” Toyota Connected Company President Keiji Yamamoto said.

Yamamoto said the company has continued to develop the vehicles, sensing a growing demand for them as the pandemic heightens people’s desire to avoid close contact with others and have services and goods come to them.

“We’re receiving a lot of interest in the potential of e-Palette vehicles for delivery and shuttle services” and beyond that there’s “a tremendous amount of interest in actually using them as mobile stores and roving offices,” he said.

Toyota has said in the past it will work with companies including Amazon.com Inc., Pizza Hut Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. to launch the vehicles.

Main Image: Motor Authority