An Automaker's North American Headquarters Is in Plano. Robotaxis Arrived 20 Miles South.

Plano is home to the North American headquarters of a global automaker, and the driverless vehicle business has arrived in its metro without it.

Toyota Motor North America employs roughly 4,938 people here, according to the city's annual comprehensive financial report, making it Plano's fourth-largest employer behind JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Capital One.

Twenty miles south, four companies are now running or testing autonomous vehicles on Dallas streets. None of them is a traditional automaker.

Who is actually competing

Waymo, owned by Alphabet, launched driverless service in Dallas running from Bishop Arts to just south of Love Field. Tesla put autonomous Model Y vehicles into central and north Dallas in April. Zoox, owned by Amazon, has been mapping the city since March and is testing with safety operators. Uber launched in December with Austin-based Avride, using safety drivers.

That list is a technology company, a car company that describes itself as a technology company, a retailer and a ride-hailing platform.

Why that matters from Plano

The autonomous vehicle business has largely been built by firms whose core competence is software rather than manufacturing. The established automakers have taken a more cautious route, generally pursuing driver-assistance systems sold in privately owned cars rather than fleets of vehicles with no driver at all.

Which approach proves correct is not a settled question, and Plano has an unusually direct stake in the answer. A city whose employment base leans on financial services and an automaker's continental headquarters is exposed to how this resolves in a way that a purely residential suburb is not.

For now, none of the Dallas robotaxi service areas extends into Plano. The competition is visible from here rather than available here.

Sources

dallasinnovates.com

dallasinnovates.com

NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth