MONET Technologies Inc., a joint venture between SoftBank Corp. and Toyota Motor Corporation, has announced it has concluded an agreement for a capital and business partnership with Hino Motors, Ltd and Honda Motor Co., Ltd to increase the value of its MaaS business and enhance mobility service levels for users. Hino and Honda each plan to invest 249.95 million yen in MONET and acquire 9.998% of its shares.

“This partnership will allow us to coordinate the vehicle data on passenger and object mobility that Hino collects from its trucks and buses and the data Honda obtains from its mobility services that utilise passenger cars and other vehicles so we can further evolve the MONET platform,” said Junichi Miyakawa, president and CEO of MONET Technologies Inc. and representative director & CTO of SoftBank Corp. “By integrating these wide and varied datasets, MONET will build an advanced MaaS platform that helps enable an autonomous driving society and realises safe and comfortable mobility services to enrich people‘s lives.”

Yoshio Shimo, president and CEO of Hino Motors Ltd, said as a company dedicated to manufacturing trucks and buses, for many years Hino Motors has supported the transport of people and goods in partnership with transport operators. He said Hino‘s role was to create new value by creating the products and services its customers and society wanted, and felt participating in MONET was the best way to further accelerate this endeavour.

Takahiro Hachigo, president and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd, said through this collaboration with MONET, Honda wanted to contribute to the revitalisation of the mobility service industry in Japan and solve traffic-related problems facing Japanese society.