Toyota, NTT invest .3 billion in AI platform development
1 min read

Toyota, NTT invest $3.3 billion in AI platform development

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) plan to invest a total of 500 billion yen ($3.27 billion) by 2030 in an infrastructure and software platform that uses artificial intelligence to reduce traffic accidents.

The automaker and the telecommunications company said in a joint statement on Thursday that they want to develop a mobility AI platform that uses large amounts of data to support driver assistance technology, with the goal of having a system ready by 2028.

The joint effort comes at a time when Japanese automakers are facing pressure to step up their efforts in the growing autonomous driving market, which is increasingly dominated by Tesla and Chinese companies.

Toyota and NTT said they hope the platform will help with things like preventing accidents caused by poor visibility in urban areas, supporting automated driving services and making it easier to merge on highways.

Their goal is to make the system available not only to themselves, but to other industry players, the government and academic partners who want to reduce traffic accidents to zero, with the goal of widespread use from 2030 onwards.

Toyota and NTT first partnered in 2017 to develop technology for 5G connected cars and formed a capital bond as part of a 2020 smart city project.

Last November, NTT said it plans to test driverless vehicle technology with Toyota as early as 2025 and invest in a US startup developing self-driving systems.

Toyota established an autonomous driving technology unit in 2021 to invest in and develop mobility with AI.

The unit, now known as Woven by Toyota, is also developing an automotive software platform, Arena, and building a test site called Woven City for mobility-related systems and services in Shizuoka Prefecture, west of Tokyo.

($1 = 152.9400 yen)

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sonali Paul)