Toyota, NTT to Invest $3.3 Billion in AI, Autonomous Driving
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Toyota Motor Corp. and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. have agreed to invest billions to develop autonomous driving software assisted by artificial intelligence.
The two companies plan to jointly invest 500 billion yen ($3.3 billion) between now and 2030, executives said in a news briefing on Oct. 31.
The goal is to implement the technology by 2028 and to share it with other companies, the companies said. The technology would rely on AI to operate a network that would help predict and respond to traffic accidents in the hopes of improving road safety.
“Transmitting large amounts of data will be crucial as software-defined vehicles become more common,” Toyota CEO Koji Sato said during the briefing in Tokyo.
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Japan’s major companies have joined forces to pour money into AI and autonomous driving for years, but have largely been left behind in the industry’s rapid shift toward so-called software-defined vehicles, which has been spearheaded by Tesla Inc., BYD Co. and other electric-vehicle brands.
Toyota and NTT formed a partnership in 2017 to co-develop 5G-connected passenger cars, then in 2020 they announced a capital tie-up to work together on a smart city project.
Toyota has been developing its own software platform called Arene, but it was further delayed last year when the company’s software startup, Woven by Toyota Inc., was overhauled following the surprise exit of its top executive.
