Toyota will invest $50 million to broaden its focus on computer science and human-machine interaction to develop its autonomous drive offering.
Toyota announced that it will be investing approximately $50 million over the next five years to establish joint research centers at MIT and Stanford universities in the US .
Toyota has also employed Dr. Gill Pratt, former Program Manager at DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and leader of its recent Robotics Challenge, to direct and accelerate these research activities and their application to intelligent vehicles and robotics.
In a press release Toyota said: 'As we age, mobility becomes more challenging; and larger segments of society are unable to drive or move freely. Also, the demands on healthcare systems and those who support the physically infirm continue to increase. Toyota believes the opportunities to improve every-day living through artificial intelligence supported technologies are boundless, with significant breakthrough potential for the development of life-saving intelligent vehicles and life-improving robots.'
Beyond Toyota’s longstanding work on autonomous vehicles and advanced driving support systems, the company has been developing robots for industrial use since the 1970s, and for Partner and Human Support Robot applications since the 2000s.