Toyota closer to artificial intelligence

Toyota will outline the strategy of its $1.4 billion investment in automotive artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics R&D at the world's largest consumer electronics show at Las Vegas in January.

According to a press statement overnight, the company will use the 2016 CES to "announce new details on its plans for research leveraging artificial intelligence" as part of its bid to maintain top-spot on the global new-vehicle sales chart over coming decades.

A scientific research centre has been set up in Silicon Valley, California, called the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), which has ties to MIT and Stanford Universities, two of the world's leading technology faculties.

The "details" Toyota talks about are expected to relate to advancements in driverless car technology, currently the Holy Grail for car-makers who are racing to be first to market with a completely autonomous car.

Car companies the world over claim that autonomous vehicles will herald a new era of reduced emissions, reduced traffic congestion and reduced fatalities.

Toyota will also show a range of related technologies concerning the company's "next-generation framework for connected vehicle and telematics systems".

During the 2015 Tokyo motor show in November, motoring.com.au had a chance to sample some of these systems first-hand, including what is dubbed 'cooperative safety technology'.

The Toyota vehicles equipped with the technology communicated with roadside infrastructure that is beginning to emerge in Tokyo. The car will warn the driver of impending risks at busy intersections, such as approaching vehicles hidden by traffic and unseen by the driver.

Although timelines for Toyota's advanced car AI, autonomous driving and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology are not yet clear, the company has stated that it aims to have its Toyota Safety Sense package – including autonomous emergency braking (AEB), automatic high-beam headlights, lane departure alert – on "almost all passengers vehicles in Japan, Europe and the US by the end of 2017".