Toyota Motor Corporation announced that it has started a new
company, Toyota Research Institute, Inc. (TRI), for the purpose of researching and developing
artificial intelligence. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with
another location near MIT, TRI will open in January 2016. TRI will
be seeded with an initial $1 billion.
As we all know, by whatever name you use (telematics, connected
car, autonomous driving, etc.) our cars are becoming more and more
independent of us, the drivers. Not surprisingly, Toyota appears to
be aggressively trying to lead at least part of this revolution.
Interestingly, Toyota sees this not just about cars, but about the
fact that "artificial intelligence has significant potential
to support future industrial technologies and the creation of an
entirely new industry." Good old fashioned mechanical
engineering is slowly giving way to computer science as companies
like Google and Apple look to disrupt the auto industry with their
own innovation.
