Today there is only one big story about Toyota. And we’ll say right now: it’s pretty nerdy.
However, it’s also important. It says a lot about Toyota, it says a lot about America, and it says a lot about what we’ll be driving in the future.
This week, Toyota announced that it would be releasing more than 5,600 of its patents about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for free to anyone who would like to use them.
That means that all the hard work Toyota’s engineers have put into figuring out how to make hydrogen cars work will be open to the world. Most companies file patents to keep their competitors from copying their ideas. Toyota is doing the opposite.
The logic for it goes like this: hydrogen cars create zero pollution and don’t use fossil fuels. Toyota thinks they are the future. For hydrogen to succeed, fuel companies need to build filling stations around the country.
Fuel companies won’t do that unless there are hydrogen cars to use the filling stations. Automakers are reluctant to pour money into developing hydrogen technology. Toyota has already developed some of the tech, so they’re biting the bullet and allowing everyone else to use their knowledge for free.
Someone has to be altruistic and take a short-term loss if hydrogen is going to become a thing. This week, Toyota stepped forward to do that.
It’s good business. In the next decade or two, global regulations will force automakers to expensively ensure that their cars are more efficient and pollute less. Toyota realized that rather than pour money into a technology that’s eventually going away, it makes more sense to invest in technology that has a future.
Hydrogen has the potential to exist for decades, if not centuries. In that sense, any initial investment will provide years of financial returns. Being altruistic is sometimes the best business choice of all.
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