Toyota has unveiled its new Woven Planet research group, set to develop connected and driverless cars, with a fully-self driving prototype coming soon.

From the beginning of 2021, the Toyota Research Institute will expand and improve its operations into a holding company, Woven Planet Holdings, and two operating companies.

The two operating companies under Woven Planet will include Woven Core, which will develop, implement, and scale automated driving technologies, and Woven Alpha, which will explore new business opportunities and incubate innovative projects such as Woven City, Arene and AMP.

Led by ex-Google roboticist James Kuffner, Woven Planet has a distinct advantage in developing electric vehicles due to the large sum of data that can be collected from the tens of millions of Toyota cars currently on the road.

“We will work hard with all of our stakeholders and partners to create tremendous new value, new technologies, and new products at a speed and scale that Toyota is famous for, and we will do it with software and services that will power future mobility,” said Kuffner.

“It is my firm belief that this will all be possible under the new Woven Planet Holdings structure, which will consolidate our efforts and equip us with the necessary ingredients of people, technology, infrastructure and corporate management to achieve our vision of ‘Mobility to Love, Safety to Live’”.

Toyota said a fully self-driving prototype would be revealed in the near future but did not give any further details.

Sources:

Courier Mail | Toyota reveals new Woven Planet project

Woven Planet | Toyota Research Institute – Advanced Development, Inc. announces it will expand and improve its operations by forming Woven Planet Holdings and two new operating companies, Woven Core and Woven Alpha.

5 February 2021