[CES 2018] Japanese auto giant Toyota unveiled a new mobility concept for retail and e-commerce called e-Palette. The e-Palette concept is centered around automated vehicles that can be customized to serve a wide variety of purposes. For example, one customer can configure it as a food truck while the other can add accommodation options to build a mobile hotel. The concept can serve as an on-demand taxi service, offer online shopping pickup, double as a mobile office, and even be a food truck. The possibilities are endless.
A large number of these automated vehicles can be brought together to create an on-demand city, many times of services can gather and blur the lines between brick and mortar, retail, and e-commerce.
The e-Palette will be fully autonomous and electric. Toyota will also allow partner companies to use their own self-driving technology. Every unit can be reconfigured within a day to serve a completely different purpose.
Toyota has created an alliance of business partners called the e-Palette alliance to support e-commerce mobilities. The partners include the likes of Uber, Amazon, DiDi, and Pizza Hut. The company plans to debut the e-Palette at the 2020 Olympics.