Dearborn, Mich.
Aug. 22, 2011
Takeshi Uchiyamada, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Coporation
Thank you, Mr. Kuzak. We have just signed a memorandum of understanding for collaboration with Ford. Both companies will now begin making preparations for joint work on new technologies. We are counting on those technologies to benefit customers in the United States and around the world.
It has been more than hundred years since the first car was born, and our industry is now facing several challenges. Offering safe cars is a given for any automaker, but one can say the greatest challenges are “conserving energy” and “reducing greenhouse gas.”
We need to think carefully about how to ensure that cars remain valuable to society in their second century. Great advances in information technology and in communications are transforming the world.
The foundation for the changes that I am describing will be telematics technologies. We at Toyota have commercialized several technologies in anticipation of the coming revolution in telematics. For example, we launched our Gazoo automotive portal site in nineteen ninety-eight (1998). And we began offering our G-Book telematics service in two thousand two (2002). In the U.S., we have just introduced the accessible, easy-to-use Entune. By sharing our know-how and experience, we would like to offer even better telematics services going forward.
Ford has also been building telematics systems and for the same reasons. By sharing our know-how and experience, we can transform what is considered as a “dream” into “practical reality.”
At the same time, we will compete harder than ever in the spirit of “making great cars.” Our competitive stance will help maximize benefits for customers and for society at large.