Toyota is planning to launch a new company in Japan’s capital city in March to help boost its efforts in advanced development for automated driving. The company will be known as “Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development” (TRI-AD).
The manufacturer, along with Toyota Group companies Aisin Seiki and Denso Corporation, will discuss how they can create a joint development of fully-integrated, “production-quality” software for automated driving.
“Building production-quality software is a critical success factor for Toyota’s automated driving program,” said Dr. James Kuffner, current TRI Chief Technology Officer and future CEO of TRI-AD. “This company’s mission is to accelerate software development in a more effective and disruptive way, by augmenting the Toyota Group’s capability through the hiring of world-class software engineers.”
The creation of the company comes as the automotive industry enters an “era of profound transformation,” where “high-quality software development and big data from connected vehicles will be crucial to success, according to Toyota’s news release.
The manufacturer’s response to these issues, in North America, was the establishment of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) in 2016, where research in the areas of artificial intelligence, automated driving, and robotics are being conducted.
Toyota, Aisin and Denso plan to invest more than 300 billion yen in the Tokyo-based TRI-AD company, which is equivalent to more than 3 billion CAD. They are also aiming to hire approx. 1,000 employees, including external recruitment and staff from Toyota Motor Corporation, TRI, and Aisin and Denso.
