Toyota to launch own operating system, vying with Tesla and VW

January 4, 2022

TOKYO/NAGOYA, Japan -- Toyota Motor plans to develop its own automotive software platform by 2025 that handles everything from basic functions to advanced applications like autonomous driving, Nikkei has learned.

With the Arene operating system, the Japanese automaker will join rivals such as Tesla and Volkswagen, as well as tech companies, in the competition to set the standards for the software powering the next generation of vehicles.

Toyota aims to put Arene in its own vehicles by 2025. After that the automaker will make the software available to affiliates including Subaru, along with other manufacturers and startups working on electric or self-driving vehicles. The company is considering monetizing the system through a licensing model.

Arene will control basic components -- the steering wheel, brakes and accelerator, for example -- and manage safety systems as well as location and traffic information. All vehicles with the OS, regardless of make or model, will have access to shared functions. Consumers can update the system online, much like smartphone software, enabling quick improvements to performance.

Engineers will be able to develop for the OS without waiting for new hardware, and cloud integration will let various teams within a corporate group work in parallel and remotely. The system is intended to allow for simulation and virtual testing as well.

Toyota will open Arene to other developers, encouraging companies from outside the industry to create applications for autonomous driving and other functions. The automaker envisions services from a variety of businesses being added to a car as easily as downloading smartphone apps.

The automaker anticipates that Arene will become a more effective platform as more users and developers join, generating more data that can be used to create new services.

Toyota faces competition in the field from Volkswagen, which is working on its "vw.os" operating system, and Daimler, which plans to roll out the MB.OS in its own vehicles in 2024.

General Motors, too, is developing an OS that can be updated instantly via the internet, poring $35 billion by 2025.

Tesla is developing software and systems toward its goal of fully self-driving vehicles, and, like Toyota, it aims to market to other companies as well. Tech companies like Apple -- which is rumored to be working on an autonomous vehicle -- and Google seek to bring the business models that succeeded in smartphones to the auto industry.

The competition to add value to vehicles has been shifting from hardware, such as conventional engines and gears, to the software controlling it. U.S.-based Lux Research predicts that electronics and software will account for 50% of a vehicle's cost in 2030, up from 20% in 2000.

Toyota looks to lift the share of software specialists in its hires of fresh engineering graduates to between 40% and 50% this spring from about 20% previously. Though the company has not said how much it will invest in software development, the automaker looks set to tilt more in that direction, with plans for 18,000 personnel in the field groupwide.

Capable of providing quicker charging and a considerably longer range, solid-state batteries are considered to be the next breakthrough in the development of electric vehicles. Toyota is one of the many companies investing in solid-state batteries. However, the firm's electrification strategy and powertrain boss, Thiebault Pâquet, told Autocar last December the technology will make its debut on a hybrid rather than a pure EV.

Speaking with Autoline during CES 2022, the company's chief scientist and head of the Toyota Research Institute, Gill Pratt, reiterated the first Toyota with a solid-state battery will still have an internal combustion engine. He went on to say development is progressing on schedule and the first car to do away with lithium-ion batteries will arrive in the first half of the decade. Well, since it's already January 2022, it means the vehicle in question is going to hit the market in three years or perhaps even sooner than that.

But why is Toyota prioritizing hybrids to the detriment of EVs? Gill Pratt admits it seems "a little bit unintuitive" at a first glance, but his explanation makes perfect sense. With the current crop of electric cars still carrying a substantial premium over their gasoline equivalents, fitting an EV with solid-state batteries would render the vehicle even more expensive. Costs are likely to come down between now and 2025, but not enough to make an ICE-less car with solid-state batteries feasible.


For this reason, Toyota will be applying the promising tech to hybrids first since the batteries will be smaller and therefore won't have such a big impact on the asking price. The company also sees hybrids as somewhat of a testbed for solid-state batteries since Gill Pratt explains the charging and discharging cycles are more pronounced. Hybrids will represent a "tougher test" for these next-gen batteries, which will eventually be installed in EVs once products costs will go down enough.


Eventually, solid-state batteries will be installed in performance cars as well. Toyota, through its luxury division Lexus, unveiled last month the Electrified Sport taking the shape of a low-slung electric coupe. Featuring the "secret sauce" that made the V10-powered LFA so great, the concept had enough juice for 435 miles (700 kilometers) of range. The speedy two-seater machine did 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in the low two-second range.

The future of Toyota EVs is going to be very exciting. Besides the developments in performance, range, and efficiency Toyota’s EV future may include something from the past. Based on a recent patent filing by Toyota, a clutch-operated manual transmission may be on the future option list for your next Toyota. So how exactly does a manual transmission work in an EV? Let’s find out.

In today’s EV market transmissions are basically non-existent. In Tesla products, there is no shifting and only a 1-speed transmission. Then Porsche and Audi use 2-speed transmissions for better response at higher speeds for better performance on the German Autobahn. But outside of these two EV heavyweights transmissions don’t really have a place in modern EVs.

Toyota plans to change all of this. In their patent filing, Toyota basically created a traditional clutch-activated manual transmission with a familiar shift lever as you’d find on a GR86. In Toyota’s patent filing they explain, “The controller of the electric vehicle is configured to control the torque of the electric motor using the MT vehicle model based on the operation amount of the accelerator pedal, the operation amount of the pseudo-clutch pedal, and the shift position of the pseudo-shifter.”

The word pseudo is an interesting inclusion since it implies that this entire transmission is all for fun and not required for the operation of the vehicle. To improve the feel of this innovative system Toyota will add, “The electric vehicle also includes a shift reaction force generator that generates a shift reaction force in response to the operation of the pseudo-shifter using by the operating of the reaction force actuator.”

This means Toyota EVs could have a simulated manual transmission that includes movement that you’d find in a connect manual in a sports car. The commitment to retaining fun in the EV future makes us excited to see what Toyota has in store for us

uninspiring electric car

However, considering all the advantages that the 2022 Tesla Model Y has over the 2022 Toyota bZ4X, the extra cost is worth it — if you can afford it. As you can see, the Model Y crushes the bZ4X in a plethora of ways, including performance, range, acceleration, and technologies.