Toyota Investing $1 Billion In Artificial Intelligence Research Institute

Toyota is investing $1 billion to form a research institute focused on the artificial intelligence and robotics technology that is necessary to develop cars that can overcome driver errors and reduce traffic fatalities.

The automaker will work on advancing safety systems that are being developed to reduce car accidents that kill a staggering 1.25 million people per year worldwide. The company will also work toward making it easier for elderly drivers to hang onto their keys, as Toyota’s biggest markets, Japan and the U.S., have aging populations overall.

Being a pioneer in this research could set Toyota apart from its Japanese rivals, who have been pursuing fully autonomous cars under more conservative time frames than either Google or Tesla. With Toyota president and racing enthusiast Akio Toyoda by his side, the newly-formed R&D unit’s chief executive said that competing to put self-driving cars on the road will be an endurance contest rather than a sprint.

“It’s possible at the beginning of a car race that you may not be in the best position,” said Gill Pratt, CEO of the institute and Toyota’s executive technical adviser. “It may be that other drivers are saying a whole lot about what their position is, and everyone may expect that a particular car will win. But of course, if the race is very long, who knows who will win? We’re going to work extremely hard.”

The Toyota Research Institute will launch its operations in January, and the Japanese automaker’s five-year initial investment will go toward setting up locations near Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The institute will be hiring researchers and engineers in an attempt to compete with automakers and tech companies that are working on self-driving cars, including GM, Tesla, Nissan, Google and Apple. Gill Pratt will oversee approximately 200 employees.

Last month, Toyota offered reporters test drives in its “Highway Teammate” concept car, a modified Lexus GS sedan that can enter highways, switch lanes and steer to the off-ramp, all while choosing spots to speed up or slow down based on the surrounding traffic and landscape. Reporters appeared to be impressed with the demonstration, and the automaker aims to introduce similar cars with automated highway driving by 2020.

The 2020 time frame has a particular resonance for Japanese automakers, as the companies all want to showcase their progress toward self-driving when Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics.

“I used to say in the past that in a 24-hour race, if the automated vehicle beats our human-driven vehicles, I will embrace automated driving,” said Toyoda, adding that his views have since changed. “One hundred years ago, horses were replaced by automobiles because people found automobiles to be more fun than horses. One hundred years from now, I would like vehicles to remain loved by people.”