Toyota makes $50m investment in artificial intelligence for cars
Toyota has entered the race to build self-driving cars, announcing on Friday a $50m investment over the next five years into development of the technology. The investment will go towards the establishment of research centres with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aimed at working on the combination of artificial intelligence with self-driving car technology. "We will initially focus on the acceleration of intelligent vehicle technology, with the immediate goal of helping eliminate traffic casualties and the ultimate goal of helping improve quality of life through enhanced mobility and robotics," said Toyota Head of Research and Development, Kiyotaka Ise.
The auto industry's investment in smart self-driving cars just went into higher gear.

At a press conference(opens in a new tab) in Palo Alto Friday, ">Toyota(opens in a new tab) announced it is investing $50 million and partnering with Stanford and MIT to "accelerate" artificial intelligence research as it relates to self-driving vehicles.

The company also announced it had tapped Dr. Gill Pratt, who lead the Robotics Challenge at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to lead the project.

SEE ALSO: Driverless golf carts get test run on Singapore island

The primary goal of this research, according to Toyota's Senior Managing Officer Kiyotaka Ise, is to help "eliminate traffic casualties," especially among the elderly.

"As we age, mobility becomes more challenging, and larger segments of society are unable to drive or move freely," said Toyota's press release.

Those goals are shared by Volvo, which claims it can eliminate(opens in a new tab) all deaths in its cars by the end of the decade.

While $50 million isn't a huge number in the world of automotive R&D, it's not insignificant either. Dr. Pratt's hiring also seems to indicate Toyota is taking this project seriously. He says the research is "targeted at improving the ability of intelligent vehicle technologies to recognize objects around the vehicle in diverse environments, provide elevated judgment of surrounding conditions, and safely collaborate with vehicle occupants, other vehicles, and pedestrians."

Professor Daniela Rus, who recently led a project to test self-driving golf carts in Singapore, will lead the research center at MIT.

The announcement comes at a time when much of the tech and car industries are focused on fully autonomous cars. Google has been developing self-driving cars, as are Apple and Uber.

Traditional automakers developing some form of self-driving cars include Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which recently acquired Nokia's Here mapping unit, Ford, Volvo and of course Elon Musk'sTesla.

1967 Toyota 2000GT. No, this isn't self-driving, but it's Friday before Labor Day weekend and this reporter thinks it's pretty. Credit: Transtock/Corbis

At the press conference, Ise said that Toyota's research would be "human-centric," in contrast to the work being done by Google and other tech companies. He also emphasized how much fun driving is, and wondered about the possibility of a car being both self-driving and fun to drive.

"Can we have it both ways?" Ise asked. "Can we have the joy of mobility ... and also have the car be safer, more efficient, and even more fun to drive?"

Toyota doesn't have the greatest track record for vehicles that are particularly fun to drive (though the company's cars are getting better(opens in a new tab) in that regard), so we look forward to seeing how its artificial intelligence can enhance that experience.