Toyota Group Firms to Set Up Driverless Technology JV

August 28, 2018

Nagoya- Automobile parts maker Denso Corp. and three other Toyota Motor Corp. group companies said Monday they will launch a joint venture in March 2019 to develop autonomous driving technologies.

The new company will develop advanced control systems that meet the needs of automakers both in Japan and abroad, within and outside the Toyota group.

Denso will own 65 pct of the new company, followed by Aisin Seiki Co. with a 25 pct stake. Jtekt Co. and Advics Co., a unit of Aisin, will each hold a 5 pct stake.

Each of the four has been developing driverless techniques by itself so far.

Denso and Aisin will also set up a joint company to develop and sell equipment for electric vehicles.

Toyota is speeding up efforts to develop and deal with next-generation technologies across the group, seeing a "once-in-a-century revolution" in the auto industry.

At a press conference in Nagoya, Denso President Koji Arima said, "We have established a system to counter competitors from outside the industry, not from the inside." He apparently had in mind information technology companies piling into the field of driverless technologies. Jiji Press