Toyota Invests A Billion In A.I.

The U.S. robotics expert tapped to head Toyota’s Silicon Valley research company says the $1 billion investment by the giant Japanese automaker will start showing results within five years.

Gill Pratt told reporters that the Toyota Research Institute is also looking ahead into the distant future when there will be cars that anyone, including children and the elderly, can ride in on their own, as well as robots that help out in homes. Pratt, a former Program Manager at the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, joined Toyota Motor Corp. first as a technical adviser when it set up its artificial intelligence research effort at Stanford University and MIT.

He said safety features will be the first types of AI applications to appear in Toyota vehicles. Such features are already offered on some models now being sold, such as sensors that help cars brake or warn drivers before a possible crash, and cars that drive themselves automatically into parking spaces or on certain roads.

Most automakers, such as General Motors, Tesla, and Nissan, are competing on autonomous driving and connecting cars to the internet, while several big companies outside the auto industry, including Google, Apple, and Uber, are also eyeing the business.

Toyota has already shown a R2-D2-like robot designed to help the elderly, the sick and people in wheelchairs by picking up and carrying objects. The automaker has also shown human-shaped entertainment robots that can converse and play musical instruments.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan, and the luxury Lexus models, already uses sophisticated robotic arms and computers in auto production.