Japanese car giant Toyota and investment fund SoftBank Vision Fund unveiled an investment of US$1bil (RM4.14bil) in US company Uber to drive forward the development of driverless ride-sharing services. Toyota has already invested US$500mil (RM2bil) in Uber as the firm races Google-owned Waymo and a host of other companies, including major automakers, to develop self-driving vehicles. Toyota and Denso are stumping up US$667mil (RM2.7mil) and SoftBank Vision Fund, the investment arm of Japanese tycoon Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, will pour US$333mil (RM1.3bil) into the venture. Sharing economyLast week, Uber filed official documents for its much-anticipated public share offering. SoftBank started as a software firm but has increasingly been pushing into investments under tycoon Son, one of Japan's richest men.

Source: The Star April 19, 2019 12:00 UTC