Kurt Verlin
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Toyota Will Invest $75M in Universities Over Five Years

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TRI University Program logo
Photo: Toyota

The Toyota Research Institute announced it has expanded its collaborative research program to include an additional 13 universities. Over the next five years, Toyota will invest more than $75 million in these academic institutions to develop artificial intelligence, robotics, and automated driving technologies.

The 13 universities join Stanford, MIT, and the University of Michigan, all three of which have been working with TRI over the last five years “to expand the body of research into artificial intelligence.” Toyota’s ultimate goal? As the automaker puts it, to amplify the human experience.


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Indeed, “automaker” is now a fairly large understatement. Toyota, like many other top manufacturers, is well on the way to becoming a big tech company. Tomorrow, it will launch the opening event for Woven Planet Group, a new software company devoted to research in connectivity, machine learning, AI, and other such fields.

You could say that Toyota is taking its official slogan — “Let’s Go Places” — very seriously. Its ultimate goal is “bringing the joy and freedom of movement to all,” and cars need not be involved.

“Our first five-year program pushed the boundaries of exploratory research across multiple fields, generating 69 patent applications and nearly 650 papers,” said TRI Chief Science Officer Eric Krotkov, the man heading the university research program.


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“Our next five years are about pushing even further and doing so with a broader, more diverse set of stakeholders. To get to the best ideas, collaboration is critical. Our aim is to build a pipeline of new ideas from different perspectives and underrepresented voices that share our vision of using AI for human amplification and societal good.”

To participate in the next phase of Toyota’s collaborative research program, universities had to complete a comprehensive proposal and review process. Applicants included Carnegie, Georgia Tech, Princeton, UCLA, and more.

As the new collaboration has just started, it’s too soon to tell what will come of it in concrete terms. But with the best minds working together, we can probably expect some pretty interesting news to come from the Toyota Research Institute throughout the next five years.