The companies intend to pool their expertise and technology, and hope that Uber customers will be able to hail Toyota-branded driverless cars by 2021.
It's an ambitious goal, but in line with Toyota's plan to start testing its own autonomous cars by 2020 – complete with artificial intelligence and voice recognition that will allow vehicles to hold conversations with drivers.
Across borders
In March this year, Toyota invested $2.8 billion (about £2.2 billion, AU$3.8 billion) in a new advanced research company to build the software that will power advanced autonomous cars, and make them safe and reliable enough for consumers.“The idea is to create a company where we are not bound by restrictions,” a Toyota spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). “It needs to be a globalized team, and one of the best ways to do that is to create a company separate from Toyota Motor Corp, to create a company with different rules – like a startup.”
It's therefore no surprise that the company is looking beyond its native Japan for partners, and has decided that US-based Uber – a young company with a disruptive approach to business – is a perfect fit.