FILE PHOTO: An onboard display monitor shows other vehicles as a staff member of Toyota Motor Corp drives its self-driving technology "Mobility Teammate Concept" prototype car hands-free on the Metropolitan Expressway during the Toyota Advanced Technologies media preview in Tokyo, Japan, October 8, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp said a new venture would be investing more than $2.8 billion (2.03 billion pounds) to develop automated-driving software - the latest salvo in an increasingly frenetic battle to be ahead in a sector hit by a slew of disruptive technologies. The Tokyo-based venture, which will bring together some 1,000 employees including new hires, will be 90 percent held by Toyota with group suppliers Denso Corp and Aisin Seiki Co each taking 5 percent. “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,” James Kuffner, who will lead the venture, said in a statement. The establishment of the new venture, Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, comes as firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo and Tesla Inc give traditional automakers a run for their money in building self-driving and electric cars. English is set to be the main business language of the new venture, the statement said. Toyota is also investing $1 billion in artificial intelligence and other technologies through its U.S.-based Toyota Research Institute, and has struck up technology partnerships with Microsoft Corp and Uber Technologies. Last month, Toyota Research Institute’s venture capital unit said it was co-leading an $11.5-million seed investment in May Mobility, an Ann Arbor-based startup that is developing self-driving shuttles for college campuses, central business districts and similar low-speed applications. Reporting by Minami Funakoshi; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Edwina Gibbs
Japanese car maker Toyota is to invest more than $2.8bn in a new venture that will focus on developing software for self-driving cars. The investment by the world’s largest carmaker, which has been criticised as being too slow and not aggressive enough when it comes to autonomous driving, was announced at an event in Silicon Valley this week. Denso and Aisin Seiki will each take a 5% stake. Toyota's US-based Research Institute has previously collaborated with Microsoft and Uber, and in February its venture capital unit co-led an $11.5m seed funding round for automated shuttle bus start-up May Mobility.