Know Why Toyota Wants to Invest $1 Million in Silicon Valley

MANILA: Silicon Valley is the dream destination for investors and entrepreneurs, it is a place where future is made. And the current scenario in the valley hints towards a budding interest in Artificial Intelligence, as we see a number of emerging buds and big giants like Google and Facebook investing big bucks in the said field. And now, we here that the renowned automaker Toyota has also joined the fleet of AI ninjas.

Toyota is getting serious to make advancements in the field of autonomous cars and support robots for the aged. To achieve this, it has decided to pour in $1 billion over the next five years in a research center based on Silicon Valley. And the said lab is known to the one of its kinds both in its nature and size. Led by a man who until recently designed Terminators prototype for Defense Department, Dr. Gil Pratt.

Artificial Intelligence is a well-established branch but has failed to make any progress in the last decade. The recent years though have seen some improvement in the said field of machine learning, one of the biggest example being Apple Siri, the personal assistant. Toyota plans to hire 200 scientists in the center that will start its operation by January.

Toyota said that under this five-year research program it will concentrate on the following three goals -

• Improve safety
• Make driving accessible for everyone
• Apply Toyota technology used for outdoor mobility to indoor environments, particularly for the support of seniors.

In the Silicon Valley, Toyota's lab will go by the name of 'Toyota Research Institute' and will focus on 'artificial intelligence and robotics.' It will be located on two locations: Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and other near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Read More: Toyota Decides to Spend $50 Million in an Effort to Develop Self-driving Cars