Toyota Motor Corporation is to establish a new company, the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), as an R&D enterprise with an initial focus on artificial intelligence and robotics.
it will be headquartered in Silicon Valley near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA. A second facility will be located near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. TRI will begin operations in January 2016.
Toyota believes artificial intelligence has significant potential to support future industrial technologies and the creation of an entirely new industry. To underscore this belief, it is making an initial investment of US$1bn over the next five years, to establish and staff the two initial locations and conduct operations.
This is in addition to the US$50m investment over the next five years with MIT and Stanford to establish joint fundamental artificial intelligence research centers at each university.
Directed by Dr Gill Pratt, Toyota’s executive technical advisor and CEO of the new enterprise, TRI will hire leading researchers and engineers to support its wide range of activities.
“Our initial goals are to improve safety by continuously decreasing the likelihood that a car will be involved in an accident; to make driving accessible to everyone, regardless of ability; and to apply Toyota technology used for outdoor mobility to indoor environments,” said Dr Pratt.
November 13, 2015
