internal software engineering teams often failing at great cost.
The drive for digital services and revenue
Toyota hasn ' t tried to be too digitally advanced, yet. But it knows it has to become more digitally integrated. And that ' s where the new CEO Kon ' s experience since 2023 is so important. Woven is a little-known entity within Toyota. It ' s not just a clever pun on the company ' s textile weaving origins; it ' s a crucial development hub for its future.
Woven is Toyota ' s software-defined vehicle architecture division. Its mission is to match the Chinese OEMs, creating vehicle platforms, architectures, and integration that enable future features and upgrades to be seamlessly integrated and deployed without requiring costly recoding or component upgrades.
Legacy car companies have all struggled with the idea of software-defined vehicles. It ' s incredibly challenging to do everything. Both the traditional mechanical engineering that creates a great driving vehicle and the software engineering that delivers digital services and in-car UX to a standard that customers experience from Apple, Google, and a myriad of other tech companies.
What does all this mean for Toyota South Africa? New CEO Kon would look kindly upon Toyota South Africa ' s enormous brand equity, dominant local market share and the pioneering work done by South Africans to create Toyota ' s hugely successful Dakar rally raid vehicles.
Kon is a finance specialist who has been quoted as‘ being obsessed with money’. That means production and supplier efficiencies at Toyota ' s Prospecton plant, like those at all other Toyota global assembly assets, will be under scrutiny. But there is also an opportunity, too. Toyota South Africa has such local market dominance and such deep customer data, that a focus from Japan on enhanced digital services could be something Toyota’ s domestic business could explore with confidence.
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2026 29 WORDS IN ACTION