Toyota will launch Arene operating system in 2025, claiming to be "comparable to iOS and Android"

Toyota Motor Corporation, which has missed a lot of opportunities in "electrification", has just announced plans to launch its own operating system "Arene" by 2025. The system will support the control of basic components such as steering, brakes and accelerators, and can manage safety systems as well as location and traffic information. In addition, the system is highly compatible, and all vehicles using the operating system can use shared functions and can be upgraded through OTA online updates, covering all operations from basic functions to autonomous driving.

Toyota is said to plan to install the operating system on its own cars by 2025, and intends to provide the system to subsidiaries such as Subaru. Toyota is also trying to find a licensing model to share the system, increase the application share of the system through the application of other electric or driverless car manufacturers and companies, and achieve commercial profitability.

After entering the intelligent car operating system track, Toyota's software platform Arene will inevitably meet with Germany's Volkswagen and Daimler. Volkswagen announced in 2019 that all new models will use the VW.OS car operating system before 2025, and a special Car.Software department was established for this purpose; Daimler plans to launch its own "Mercedes-Benz operating system" on its cars by 2024.

In the past two years, Toyota, which is famous for its hybrid technology, has faced the challenge of transformation. Under the strong attack from Tesla, it has had to bow its head and move towards the direction of electrification and intelligence that car companies cannot avoid.

In 2021, Akio Toyoda repeatedly criticized the "electrification" of automobiles, believing that the price of electric vehicles is "high-end" for ordinary people. Previously, Akio Toyoda had also shouted at Tesla, saying that Tesla only has recipes, while Toyota already has kitchens and chefs and can produce real food.

However, Toyota has not stopped its pace in the field of automotive intelligence, and has even made frequent moves. As early as November 2015, Toyota announced that it would establish a new company called Toyota Research Institute (TRI) to focus on the research of artificial intelligence and robotics. Toyota also promised to invest $1 billion in TRI over the next five years and hired Gill Pratt, the former head of the DARPA (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) robotics project, as the company's CEO.

In March 2017, TRI unveiled its first autonomous driving car, which was based on the Lexus LS600 hL and equipped with a high-performance sensor architecture and seven lidars (one with 64 lines and six with 16 lines).

In September 2017, TRI launched version 2.1 (Platform 2.1) of its self-driving car, which fine-tuned the number and layout of sensors and introduced for the first time a lidar customized for it by Luminar, a lidar startup invested by Toyota. TRI once said that this was the world's most powerful self-driving car with the strongest perception performance.

In January 2018, TRI launched version 3.0 of its self-driving car, which minimized the sensor height, completely eliminated Velodyne's flowerpot-style lidar, and introduced high-temperature resistant panels.

Toyota actually took the first step towards intelligent transformation in 2018. In March 2018, Toyota, Aisin Seiki and Denso jointly established the Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD). TRI-AD is committed to establishing a strong connection between basic research and product production to accelerate the development and deployment of autonomous driving technology.

According to the announcement released by Toyota, TRI-AD's CEO will be former TRI CTO James Kuffner. Half of TRI-AD's eight management members come from Toyota, and the other half come from Here Maps, Netflix, Google and other companies. Toyota, Aisin Seiki and Denso will invest 300 billion yen (about 2.8 billion US dollars) in TRI-AD, with Toyota, Aisin Seiki and Denso holding 90%, 5% and 5% of the shares respectively. In addition, TRI-AD will recruit about 1,000 employees from TRI, Toyota, Aisin Seiki, Denso and the public.

In July 2020, Toyota announced the reorganization of TRI-AD, extending to the connected car sector, and established three companies: Woven Planet Holdings, Woven CORE, and Woven Alpha. Woven CORE was renamed from TRI-AD and focuses on autonomous driving technology; Woven Alpha is a newly established company that focuses on finding innovation opportunities, and the Arene operating system was developed by it.

Arene is a vehicle software development platform with a vehicle application programming interface (API) and a security module that supports rapid iteration to shorten the time from concept to deployment. Through Arene, developers will be able to deploy the same code to any vehicle running Arene OS, including middleware and hardware abstraction layer (HAL). James Kuffner, CEO of Woven Planet Holdings, expressed confidence that the Arene project is a "world-class travel software platform comparable to iOS and Android" created by Toyota.

It is worth noting that Akio Toyoda invested in Woven Planet Holdings as a personal investor and did not hold any position in Woven Planet. Akio Toyoda explained that this is an unknown era and it is time to make the next business model change. As the third-generation heir to Toyota Motor, Akio Toyoda believes that family assets should be used to invest in the future.