Every year at CES we see a lot of tech and cars,

but no one really does it better than Toyota.

So when Toyota reached out and offered to sponsor

a look at what they've got at the show,

I couldn't say no.

The biggest, shiniest new toy is known as the TRI-P4.

This is developed by Toyota's Research Institute

and is built around the Lexus LS 500h.

Unlike most autonomous vehicles, this actually looks cool.

Yeah I know, it's a revolutionary concept.

It's still heavily modified with things like

lidar, camera, radar, and much more,

but the most important thing is that

Toyota is actually taking two approaches here.

Their Guardian tech is about making

driving safer with a person behind the wheel,

whereas Chauffeur's all about

full autonomy in almost any scenario.

Now this is a big deal, right?

Autonomous vehicles are not ready

for the mainstream just yet.

There's still a lot of work to do

to bring fully driverless cars to the mainstream,

but Toyota is such a huge company,

and they span across so many areas

that it's really interesting to take a look

at some of their other investments.

I got the chance to cohost the

Toyota Untold podcast recently

to get a better idea of how this all plays out.

- Yeah, so Toyota AI Ventures

is Toyota's first dedicated venture capital fund,

and it's focused on investing in early stage companies

that are focusing on artificial intelligence,

data as applied to autonomous mobility, and robotics.

Many of the startups are defining what mobility means,

and so we are investing in those companies

that are defining mobility.

- Another cool company here is May Mobility.

Now this is actually a company who

has autonomous vehicles on the road right now

in Detroit as well as Columbus,

and this is their next generation vehicle.

So this is a version that would have absolutely no driver.

So as you can see in the front seat

I'm actually facing back toward other passengers,

and as it has all these different sensors

and as the technology develops,

you can imagine a fully autonomous version of this vehicle.

Unlike a lot of the vehicle stuff here at CES,

May Mobility actually has these on the streets right now.

So it is a slightly different version,

and it does have a driver,

so in case there's any kind of issues,

but the idea is that this is the final format

of what it will become hopefully in the next few years.

Something you don't exactly see every day

is a hydrogen-powered truck.

So this is Project Portal.

It's a collaboration between Kenworth and Toyota,

and it's a, well, let's just take a look.

Not quite like any truck you've seen or that I've seen.

This is where the magic happens.

There are six carbon fiber hydrogen tanks

which are enough to use the electric motor right behind it

to pull a ton of cargo.

This is actually more powerful that a standard diesel truck.

So now I get to explore the truck.

This may be a questionable idea.

I've actually never been inside of one of these before.

This is really cool.

So what's interesting about this

is that the truck chassis itself

is not that different from a lot of others,

but there's a lot of special bespoke parts for this one.

For example, there's a Mirai shifter here because why not?

What's cool about this is that

it actually is a proper truck too.

There is a full 300 miles of range,

and right now the prototype is actually at the port of L.A.

bringing cargo back and forth all day.

So it's actually a really interesting idea

of getting away from a standard electric

or standard sort of diesel truck

into something that's just a little bit more high tech.

By a little I mean a lot.

Hydrogen's pretty cool.

The days of a car company that just makes cars that will

get you from point A to point B are quickly ending.

Technology is rapidly changing things,

alternative fuels are rapidly changing things,

and the idea that you don't actually have to drive your car

is a big, big selling point.

So it is super interesting to see

just how Toyota is taking advantage of this

and really becoming an all new company.