Toyota is one of the largest auto makers in the history of the world. They’re practically their own government, and have more than enough money bankroll a burgeoning technology tree. To say they fucked up by testing a brand new technology and developing it in-house, seemingly on their own until recently (BMW and Mercedes have both joined Toyota in their development process within the last 5 years) is bonkers.
Any new technology or idea generally has a long road to maturity. You wouldn’t say the quest for quantum computing or the unified field theory are complete wastes of time and money when we’re discovering things along the way. Hydrogen may not work out for your consumer vehicle, but it absolutely works better than electric for those trans-oceanic container ships and shooting rockets to the moon.
Toyota is one of the largest auto makers in the history of the world. They’re practically their own government, and have more than enough money bankroll a burgeoning technology tree. To say they fucked up by testing a brand new technology and developing it in-house, seemingly on their own until recently (BMW and Mercedes have both joined Toyota in their development process within the last 5 years) is bonkers.
Any new technology or idea generally has a long road to maturity. You wouldn’t say the quest for quantum computing or the unified field theory are complete wastes of time and money when we’re discovering things along the way. Hydrogen may not work out for your consumer vehicle, but it absolutely works better than electric for those trans-oceanic container ships and shooting rockets to the moon.