Toyota launches $22m R&D Development with Michigan University 

Gill Pratt, the chief executive  of Toyota America has disclosed that the automaker will funnel $22million into a partnership with the University of Michigan (U-M) the next four yearsto boost research and development in artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and robotics.

Pratt said in a speech to the university’s faculty in Ann Arbor, Mich., that the Toyota Research Institute “has long enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the University of Michigan” and will continue to support “collective efforts” toadvance mobility.

“We look forward to collaborating with U-M’s research faculty and students to develop new intelligent technologies,” Pratt said. “We will also focus on expanding the benefit of mobility technology to in-home support of older persons and thosewith special needs.”A Toyotaspokesman said U-M robotics professors Ryan Eustice and Edwin Olson are“basically responsible” for the fully autonomous vehicle program at the ToyotaResearch Institute in Ann Arbor, which opened in April.

The professors’ work will be the initial beneficiary of the investment, the spokesman said, as they continue to do research at the institute and teach part-time at the university.To hold upits end of the bargain, U-M professors are expected to submit project proposalsto be funded with the $22 million. Research will be focused on enhanced driving safety, partner robotics, indoor mobility, autonomous driving and student learning.

Toyota said in a statement that it invested in the partnership with U-M because the university already established a strong research base for high-level,driver-assist systems, pushing into the space of autonomous driving.Additionally,Toyota already has two technical centers in Ann Arbor, which work with theuniversity on connected vehicle and safety research.

The automaker has additional research centers in Palo Alto, California where it works with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Self-driving cars spur more automotive M&A in Silicon Valley. Thr auto industry’s self-driving revolution has spurred the biggest two years of automotive supplier takeovers in a decade, with more coming as parts makers struggle to keep up with the pace of technological transformation.

The total value of automotive supplier deals in 2015 and 2016 was $74.4 billion, accordingto data compiled by Bloomberg, with each of those years far exceeding the $17.7billion annual average in the previous 10 years. The number of transactionsvalued at $500 million or more also skyrocketed to 18 last year, triple thelevel of the previous decade. There have been 11 such deals so far this year.

Driving-force behind the wave of consolidation is the pressure to keep up with theshift toward autonomous driving that started about five years ago. Suppliers need the know-how to help cars see their environment much as a human pilotwould, which means sensors, cameras and radar, plus the computing power tocomprehend the waves of data and share some of it, like traffic conditions,from vehicle to vehicle. Meanwhile, parts makers are getting cheaper, with economic uncertainty and Brexit concerns driving share prices down.

Mike Ochonma