Toyota and NTT plan to spend US$3.27 billion on artificial intelligence system for autonomous driving

Toyota Motor and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) plan to invest a total of 500 billion yen (US$3.27 billion) by 2030 in infrastructure and software platform using artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce road accidents.

On Thursday, the automaker and telecom giant said in a joint statement that they want to develop an artificial intelligence platform for mobility that uses large amounts of data to power driver assistance technology, aiming to have the system ready by 2028.

The joint push comes at a time when Japanese automakers face pressure to step up their efforts in a growing sector of the economy. autonomous driving a market increasingly dominated by Tesla and various Chinese companies.

Toyota and NTT said they hope the platform will help with issues such as preventing accidents caused by poor visibility in urban areas, supporting autonomous driving services and making it easier to enter expressways.

The joint initiative between NTT and Toyota aims to catch up with the progress made by Tesla and various Chinese companies in the field of autonomous driving technology. Photo: Shutterstock

Their goal is to make the system available not only to themselves, but also to other industry players, government and academic partners who want to reduce the number of road accidents to zero, planning for widespread implementation from 2030.