Toyota to invest in Albert for automated driving development

Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and Albert Inc. have agreed on a business alliance for big data analysis, mainly in the field of advanced development of automated driving technology, and that Toyota will invest in Albert.

The investment in Albert is expected to be around 400 million yen, with Toyota acquiring new shares in Albert issued through a third-party allocation of shares dated May 30, 2018.

To promote the development of automated driving technologies, Toyota has been bolstering its organisation by establishing the advanced research company, Toyota Research Institute (TRI), in the United States in January 2016 and the advanced development company, Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), in Tokyo, while also advancing its technology development centred on AI.

Albert, a group of data scientists in the domain of big data analysis, has been providing solutions to companies since 2005. In recent years, it has been actively expanding into the field of imagery analysis in the development of automated driving technologies.

Through the business alliance announced today between Toyota and Albert, Toyota believes it will be possible to strengthen elements such as data analysis processes in Toyota’s development of AI technologies, which is expected to achieve greater acceleration of Toyota’s development of automated driving technologies.

Executive General Manager Ken Koibuchi,  in charge of the development of automated driving at Toyota’s in-house Advanced R&D and Engineering Company, said: “We believe that AI technologies are indispensable for achieving our vision of ‘safe and smooth mobility for all people’.

“To bring out the full performance of AI technologies, it is necessary to skilfully manage large volumes of data. I look forward to this business alliance accelerating Toyota’s development of automated driving technologies.”