Toyota to invest $500 million in Uber

Toyota Motor Corporation and Uber Technologies, Inc. have announced to strengthen their partnership.

Toyota has announced to expand its collaboration with Uber. This is aimed at advancing and bringing to market autonomous ride-sharing as a mobility service at scale. Uber will integrate its self-driving technology alongside Toyota Guardian technology in specially designed vehicles.

The vehicles will be deployed in Uber’s ridesharing network. Both companies have stated that they anticipate that the mass-produced autonomous vehicles will be owned and operated by mutually agreed upon third party autonomous fleet operators. In exclusion to that, TMC will also invest $500 million in Uber.

Shigeki Tomoyama, executive vice president, TMC, and president, Toyota Connected Company, said, ‘This agreement and investment marks an important milestone in our transformation to a mobility company as we help provide a path for safe and secure expansion of mobility services like ride-sharing that includes Toyota vehicles and technologies.’

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's CEO stated, ‘Our goal is to deploy the world's safest self-driving cars on the Uber network, and this agreement is another significant step towards making that a reality. Uber's advanced technology and Toyota's commitment to safety and its renowned manufacturing prowess make this partnership a natural fit. I look forward to seeing what our teams accomplish together.’

This project will be called ‘Autono-MaaS’ and in its initial fleet will be based on Toyota's Sienna platform. The ‘Autono-MaaS’ vehicle will be equipped with Uber’s Autonomous Driving System and the Toyota Guardian automated safety support system. Pilot-scale deployments will begin on the Uber ride-sharing network in 2021.

Uber's automated driving system and Toyota's Guardian system will independently monitor the vehicle's environment and real-time situation. This will enhance the overall vehicle safety for both the driver and the vehicle.