Toyota To Open $1 Billion AI, Robotics Research Institute In US

Toyota To Open $1 Billion AI, Robotics Research Institute In US

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Toyota is set to invest $1 billion to create a new research institute focusing on AI and robotics in the United States. Slated to head the new institute is Gill Pratt, MIT professor and former project manager at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s research agency).

The initial investment of $1 billion will be spread over five years will be aimed at creating and staffing the new research centre near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, with a secondary location near MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts, being built later. The new organisation, called Toyota Research Institute (TRI), will employ about 200 staff members and is to begin operations in 2016.

Toyota is not merely planning to enter the quick to be overcrowded self-driving car market, although that will be a major focus of the institute, which should come as no surprise from one of the world’s leading car manufacturers. Beyond self-driving cars, TRI’s mission would include other areas that will have a positive impact on society as a whole, said Toyota president Akio Toyoda and TRI’s newly appointed CEO, Pratt.

“TRI will first focus on collaborative autonomy — the way that people and machines can work together,” Pratt said at the announcement press conference. The guiding focus of TRI will be three things: accessibility, safety, and robotics.

The safety goal will be to reduce the likelihood of a car being involved in an accident. Through the accessibility goal TRI will seek to make driving available to everyone and anyone, regardless of age and physical condition. The third goal, robotics, will aim to apply Toyota technology in support of the elderly and the infirm.

In addition to these goals, Toyota wishes for TRI to “improve production efficiency and accelerate scientific discovery in materials.”