Toyota is forming a new company called Toyota Research Institute – Advanced Development (TRI-AD) to accelerate its efforts in advanced development for automated driving, the company announced.
In conjunction with two other companies, Aisin Seiko and Denso Corporation, Toyota will develop fully-integrated, production-quality software for automated driving.
Together, the three companies plan to invest $2.8 billion in the venture, with plans to add a staff of 1,000 employees.
"Building production-quality software is a critical success factor for Toyota's automated driving program," stated Dr. James Kuffner, currently Toyota Research Institute chief technology officer, who will lead TRI-AD as its CEO. "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. We will recruit globally.”
Stated objectives of the new company include creating a smooth software pipeline from research to commercialization, strengthening the collaboration within the Toyota Group and recruiting top-level engineers globally.
At CES in January, Toyota introduced its concept self-driving vehicle.