Toyota Connected to Expand and Double Employees in Texas
© Toyota
Toyota Connected is a “startup” that serves as the data science hub for Toyota’s global operations. It was launched a year ago with offices at the Legacy West Urban Village near the automaker’s new headquarters in Texas, and supports various customers for the brand at the consumer, business, and government level.
Originally, Toyota Connected planned to employ 100 people, but already Zack Hicks, president and CEO of the startup, has stated they plan to add another 100 employees, as well as add an extra 13,500 square feet to its existing 20,000 square foot leased office.
“We’re growing faster than we had planned,” Hicks said in a statement. “The amount of interest and demand in leveraging our big data to create new products and services has been incredible.”
“Over the past year we’ve been scaling up to deliver on these new opportunities, which will significantly impact the way consumers interact with vehicles.”
Toyota Connected currently employs 55 people, including engineers, software developers, and data scientists. Together, they’ve begun developing Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform, a “global, cloud-based digital ecosystem that will enable a host of mobility services such as ride sharing, car sharing, remote delivery and much more.”
The company is delivering these wireless services using the cloud-based Azure platform developed by Microsoft, whose patents Toyota is also using to work on autonomous vehicles.
Toyota Connected also provides data and computer science services to support the Toyota Research Institute’s ongoing research into artificial intelligence and robotics, both of which are believed to be intertwined with autonomous vehicle technology.
Source: Toyota
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