Toyota And NTT To Invest $3.27 Billion In AI Platform To Prevent Traffic Accidents

Toyota Motor Corporation and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) announced today a new plan to invest $3.27 billion to build a “Mobility AI Platform” for their mission to reach a “society with zero traffic accidents.”

According to the press release, the companies have agreed on the necessary steps to reach their goal: taking a collaborative approach to understanding infrastructure, and developing data-driven technology and future automated driving technologies.

Toyota is building a Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) with a focus on safety and security, and together both businesses will build the Mobility AI Platform using NTT’s expertise in communication infrastructure. They will begin building the platform in 2025, expect to start implementing it in 2028, and reach adoption and user expansion by 2030.

The companies estimate that the 5-year plan for the Mobility AI Platform will cost 500 billion yen—around $3.27 billion. Toyota and NTT also expect this technology to be adopted by other companies and institutions, like academic partners and government organizations who share the goal of reaching a zero-traffic accident society.

According to Reuters, both companies have been working together since 2017 when they began building 5G technologies for cars together and will test Toyota autonomous vehicles next year.

The autonomous vehicle market has experienced significant growth this past year, but also challenges and raising concerns that Toyota and NTT want to address with the new initiative. The auto safety regulator in the United States is currently investigating Tesla’s self-driving system due to recent crashes, one involving a fatal crash.