Toyota to Open AI Research Company in Silicon Valley in Jan.

Nagoya, Nov. 6 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> said Friday that it will establish a research and development company for artificial intelligence in Palo Alto, California, in January. Toyota will invest some one billion dollars over the next five years in the Toyota Research Institute, aiming to boost the development of AI-based self-driving technologies. Gill Pratt, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will become chief executive of the R&D arm. He is known as a global authority on robots and AI research. The TRI will be staffed by about 200 people. Toyota hopes to hire competent engineers and researchers in Silicon Valley, where many top-class information and technology firms, such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc., are based. Toyota President Akio Toyoda told a press conference in Tokyo that the leading Japanese automaker aims to create a new business by connecting AI and big data. At the same news conference, Pratt pointed out that Toyota has achieved success as a hardware maker and will be able to contribute to the society further if it integrates hardware and software. In September, Toyota agreed separately with the MIT and Stanford University to set up AI research centers. The TRI will collaborate with these centers, Toyota officials said. END