The industry is working on making ugly autonomous sensors smaller.
Toyota Motor and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation will pool resources on developing, verifying, and standardizing technology with connected cars. The stated goal is combining the automotive vehicle-related technologies of Toyota with the information and communication technologies of NTT Group companies. (read AutoInformed on: Toyota with Plethora of Patents Tops at 2016 R&D Awards)
The giant Japanese companies say they will carry out joint research and development of technologies necessary “for solving various issues facing society, including traffic accidents and congestion, and for providing customers with new mobility services, aimed at realizing a sustainable Smart Mobility Society in the future from a global perspective.” (Toyota Research Institute Autonomous Vehicle 2.0 Shown at Prius Challenge. This One is Engineered by Toyota)
Big Brother Is Watching
The companies want – not without substantial self-interest – a platform for data collection, accumulation, and analysis for building and administering the collection and accumulation of “huge amounts of vehicle information and other data received from large numbers of vehicles.” Then the platform will manage the distributing of large amounts of data, and for analyzing and processing the collected Big Data in real time. (Toyota Mobility Services Via Car Sharing Firm Getaround)
Toyota, with its knowledge of vehicle use cases and data requirements on the vehicle side, will research and develop an ICT platform for connected cars, aimed at mobility service value creation. (Microsoft Licenses Toyota Connected Car Technology)
NTT Group will conduct R&D on edge computing technology and promote international standardization. Will also carry out R&D on driving advice and voice interaction technologies, making use of know-how from the NTT Group Artificial Intelligence technology – the badly named “corevo.” NTT will also build in leading standardization efforts for the next-generation 5G mobile communications system. NTT will promote 5G standardization for automotive vehicle use and lead the way in 5G mobile communication system trial due next year.
