co.
uk Wednesday 03 January 2018 Advertisement Toyota places $1bn bet on robot technology World's biggest car company to invest $1bn on robots and artificial intelligence as it looks to the future Toyota says robots will be able to assist and interact with humans By Alan Tovey, Industry Editor 9:41AM GMT 06 Nov 2015 Follow Toyota is placing a $1bn bet on robots and artificial intelligence being major future technologies by setting up a new research and development unit to investigate their uses.
 The world’s biggest car company will spend the money over five years to establish the Toyota Research Institute near Stanford University in Silicon Valley, with a second facility at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
 It is our responsibility to make life better for our customers, and society as a whole Akio Toyoda, Toyota president The Japanese industrial giant said that it “believes artificial intelligence has significant potential to support future industrial technologies and the creation of an entirely new industry”.
 Investment in the research institute will be spread over five years and Toyota said it hopes the centre will “bridge the gap between fundamental research and product development”.
 The institute’s primary mission will be to speed up development of robots and artificial intelligence and to “help resolve society's future challenges by using artificial intelligence and big data…contributing to a sustainable future where everyone can experience a safer, freer, and unconstrained life”.
 Toyota has appointed its executive technical adviser Gill Pratt as chief executive of the new enterprise.