28/08/2018

Toyota joins the self-driving race

Reuters reports that Toyota is investing $500m in Uber in order to compete in the autonomous driving race.

The agreement builds on an existing partnership and confirms CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's strategy of Uber developing autonomous vehicles through partnerships, rather than on its own.

The deal will see combined technology built into Toyota's Sienna minivans, to be deployed on Uber's ride-hailing network starting in 2021, Uber said.

Jeff Miller, Uber's head of business development for strategic initiatives, said the partnership 'really paints the picture of how we envision deploying autonomous technology in the long term.' That includes licensing its autonomous technology to carmakers and enlisting a third party to own and maintain the fleet.

For Toyota, executive vice president Shigeki Tomoyama said, '(the) agreement and investment marks an important milestone in our transformation to a mobility company as we help provide a path for safe and secure expansion of mobility services like ride-sharing that includes Toyota vehicles and technologies.'