Toyota, Stanford, MIT team up on research

Associated Press, EAST PALO ALTO, California

Toyota Motor Corp is investing US$50 million with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the hopes of gaining an edge in an accelerating the race to phase out human drivers.

The financial commitment announced on Friday by the Japanese automaker is to be made over the next five years at joint research centers located in Silicon Valley and another technology hub in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Toyota has hired robotics expert Gill Pratt to oversee research aimed at developing artificial intelligence and other innovations that are to enable future car models to navigate roads without people doing all the steering and stopping.

“We believe this research will transform the future of mobility, improving safety and reducing traffic congestion,” said Kiyotaka Ise, a Toyota executive who oversees the company’s research and development group.

Unlike some of its rivals in the technology and auto industries, Toyota believes the day when cars are able to drive entirely by themselves is unlikely to arrive within the next decade.

The company is instead focusing its efforts on developing technologies that would turn a car into the equivalent of an intelligent assistant, which would recognize when it should take over the steering when a driver is distracted or play a favorite song when it detects a driver is in a bad mood.   ….   Read the report.