4 October 2018 – Tokyo, Japan
1. Wide of Masayoshi Son, Chairman, Softbank, walking onto stage
2. Wide of joint press conference
3. Mid of Son talking
4. Wide of audience
5. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Masayoshi Son, Chairman, Softbank:
"Toyota is number one in the world in area of mobility and Softbank is putting more emphasis on AI (artificial intelligence). This partnership between the two companies will give birth to a new era of mobility, something that hasn't been seen yet and I have a feeling that mobility will evolve."
6. Wide of Son talking
7. Close of people taking photos
8. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Masayoshi Son, Chairman, Softbank:
"This time, we partnered with Toyota and I think that the Monet's service will be carried out while utilizing technology that Toyota will develop for autonomous driving."
9. Wide of Akio Toyoda, Chief Executive, Toyota, walking onto stage and shaking hands with Son
10. Mid of people taking photos
11. Wide of Toyoda talking
12. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Akio Toyoda, Chief Executive, Toyota:
"Softbank is working with many teams trying to create new mobility services and to create a more exciting mobility society. I believe that the cooperation between the two companies will be an alliance to make the future mobility society a reality by incorporating these teams."
13. Wide of Toyoda talking
14. Close of people taking photos
15. Tilt down from logo to photo session of Son (left) and Toyoda (right) in the middle
16. Wide of photo session
17. Close of people taking photos
18. Close of photo session and Son and Toyoda shaking hands
Japan's No. 1 automaker Toyota Motor and technology giant SoftBank Group are setting up a joint venture to create mobility services in what they called a "united Japan" effort to face global competition.
The 2 billion yen (20 million US dollars) venture, Monet Technologies Corp. is meant to be running by the end of March.
It will work on on-demand vehicle services, food deliveries, data analysis and hospital shuttles with onboard medical exams, the companies said Thursday in a news conference at a Tokyo hotel.
The energy and telecoms company's past tie-ups have tended to be with overseas startups.
But Softbank has also invested in leading car-sharing companies like Uber, Didi and Grab, and has acquired Arm, a leader in the Internet of Things, or IoT.
Toyoda stressed the auto industry was changing in an era of connected cars, autonomous driving, car-sharing and electric vehicles.
SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son said he was thrilled to be partnering with a top automaker on mobility and artificial intelligence, his company's expertise.
The joint venture's services will roll out in Japan first, but a global expansion is in the works, the companies said. It's 50.25 percent owned by SoftBank, 49.75 percent by Toyota.
Toyota is developing autonomous vehicles in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Monet plans to roll out a business featuring autonomous vehicle services by the second half of 2020, they said.
Automakers around the world are forming tie-ups in the race to develop the next-generation of transportation, such as self-driving cars.
