Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor and telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) plan to invest a total of 500 billion yen (76.6 billion CZK) in infrastructure and software platforms using artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. Their aim is to reduce the number of traffic accidents, they said in a joint announcement today.
Driver assistance technology
The companies intend to develop an AI platform for mobility that will use big data to support driver assistance technologies. Toyota and NTT hope the platform will help with such things as preventing accidents caused by poor visibility in urban areas, supporting automated driving services and making it easier to shift from the next lane to the main lane when entering expressways and highways.
The companies also want to make the system available to other industry players, government or academic partners who want to reduce the number of accidents to zero. The two partners would like to have the system ready by 2028 and are planning a widespread rollout from 2030.
Technology test
The companies’ collaboration comes at a time when Japanese automakers are facing pressure to step up their efforts in the growing autonomous driving market. This is increasingly dominated by Tesla and Chinese firms.
Toyota and NTT first collaborated in 2017 to develop technology for fifth-generation (5G) network-connected cars. In 2020, they formed an equity tie-up as part of a smart city project.
Last November, NTT said it planned to test driverless vehicle technology with Toyota as early as 2025 and invest in a US start-up developing self-driving systems. Toyota has set up a division for autonomous driving technology in 2021, with the aim of investing in and developing AI-enabled mobility. Called ‘Woven by Toyota’, the division is also developing a software platform for automakers called Arene and building a Woven City test site for mobility-related systems and services west of Tokyo.
Source: ČTK
