Toyota, Uber Extend Collaboration to Automated Driving

August 28, 2018

Nagoya- Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it has agreed to step up collaboration with Uber Technologies Inc. to promote the development of ride-sharing vehicles using automated driving technologies.

Toyota will invest 500 million dollars in Uber, the Japanese automaker's first investment in the U.S. ride-sharing firm, except an investment made by a financial subsidiary after the two companies agreed to form a partnership in the field of ride-sharing services in May 2016.

Toyota and Uber now plan to launch their first dedicated vehicle in the U.S. ride-sharing market in 2021. The "Autono-MaaS" vehicle will be based on Toyota's Sienna minivan and equipped with its Guardian automated safety support system and Uber's Autonomous Driving System.

The two companies are eyeing the management of their mass-produced autonomous vehicles by third-party operators.

Under the extended partnership, Toyota and Uber aim to establish more sophisticated and safer automated driving technologies.

In March, an Uber autonomous vehicle hit a pedestrian to death during a test run on a public road in Arizona. After the fatal accident, Toyota and Uber stopped their respective autonomous vehicle tests on public roads in the United States. Jiji Press