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Toyota Spending $1 Billion to Build Cars that Don’t Crash

November 7th, 2015  |  Auto

Toyota has announced they will be investing $1 billion U.S. to building an institute to research new technologies that will overcome driver error and reduce road fatalities.

The Toyota Research Institute will focus on advancing artificial intelligence and robotics technology that will curtail auto collisions, that kill 1.25 million people worldwide annually, and allow elderly drivers to potentially hang on to their licences for longer.

The automaker’s new direction will set it apart from other Japanese car companies who have been working towards autonomous cars under more conservative timelines than their American counterparts, Tesla and Google.

Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota’s institute and their executive technical advisor believes that the race to the autonomous car finish line is not a sprint, it’s about endurance.

“It’s possible at the beginning of a car race that you may not be in the best position,” said Pratt.

“It may be that other drivers are saying a whole lot about what their position is and everyone may expect that a particular car will win. But of course, if the race is very long, who knows who will win? We’re going to work extremely hard.”

The Toyota Research Institute will start operating in January and the auto maker’s initial investments will be put towards setting up locations near Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock