Toyota Launching $1 Billion AI Lab . . . And it is now not only for vehicles

The automaker is hiring robotics professional Gill Pratt—and investing $1 billion in R&D labs close to Stanford and MIT.

by way of Neal Ungerleider

November 6, 2015

Toyota has big plans for artificial intelligence—and not simply in cars. The automaker is earmarking $1 billion in funds for a new subsidiary referred to as the Toyota research Institute (TRI). The R&D agency will focal point on building synthetic intelligence merchandise for cars and the house.

It’s a massive move for Toyota, one of several massive automakers which might be looking to navigate the tangled landscape beforehand of the transition to independent and semiautonomous automobiles. the corporate’s public facing efforts on artificial intelligence in automobiles so far skew towards features like better parking and lane spacing capabilities somewhat than self-riding cars such as those Google are engaged on.

The automaker is also making a high-profile rent to lead the lab. Gill Pratt, this system manager on the DARPA Robotics problem, will oversee the brand new group. Toyota is in the beginning opening a lab in Palo Alto, and a 2d location in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is planned for a future opening. TRI will begin operations in January 2016.

In a commentary, Pratt said the next:

Our preliminary goals are to: 1) toughen safety with the aid of constantly reducing the possibility that a automotive will likely be all in favour of an accident; 2) make using accessible to everybody, despite capacity; and 3) follow Toyota expertise used for out of doors mobility to indoor environments, particularly for the strengthen of seniors. We also plan to apply our work more greatly, for example to enhance manufacturing effectivity and accelerate scientific discovery in materials.

whereas Toyota has dabbled in give a boost to for seniors prior to, an emphasis on making use of automotive industry expertise to on a regular basis existence for senior citizens is new for the company.