Japanese carmaker Toyota is set to invest $500 Million in Uber and expand a partnership to mutually create self-driving cars to catch up with rivals over autonomous vehicles.

United States: The Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota is ready to invest USD 500 Million in the ride-hailing company Uber of United States as the two companies wants to grow their partnership on the development of self-driving cars.

The major aim of the contract is to use technology from both companies in Toyota cars to be installed across Uber’s ride-sharing network from 2021. Toyota’s investment values Uber at USD72 Billion.         

The executive vice-president of Toyota said the agreement marks a milestone in the change of a car sharing company as the company helped them to provide a path for safe and secure expansion of ride-sharing that will include Toyota vehicles and technologies.

The Uber’s head of business development for strategic initiatives said that the deal will paint the actual picture of the autonomous technology in the long term. Uber will combine its autonomous driving system with Toyota’s Guardian technology, which offers some automatic safety features such as lane-keeping.

Earlier, Toyota and Uber have joined on an electric mobility project. Two years back, Toyota capitalized an undisclosed sum in Uber and the two companies joined on a car-leasing strategy for Uber drivers.

According to TechSci Research, the move by Toyota is expected to have a positive impact on the growth of Semi & Fully Autonomous Vehicle market, globally. The Semi & Fully Autonomous Vehicle market is anticipated to witness robust growth in the coming years owing to growing demand for driverless vehicles, growing demand for safety features and increasing government support for developing driverless vehicles. Globally, the automobile sector has been constantly evolving in terms of engine performance and design. Apart from these parameters, evolution of autonomous features in passenger cars is garnering attention of consumers across the world. Key factors which are expected to drive growth in the market over the next twenty years include anticipated increase in regulations mandating integration of autonomous technology in new vehicles, decline in prices of autonomous technology and the rising focus on safety on roads.

According to the recently published report by TechSci Research, “Global Semi & Fully Autonomous Vehicle Market By Automation Level (Level 0, Level 1 & Others), By Component (Embedded Systems, Cameras & Others), By Vehicle Type, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2016–2023”, Global semi & fully autonomous vehicle market is projected to exhibit a CAGR of over 21% to reach $ 64 billion by 2030. Growing focus of automotive OEMs on enhancing safety features and increasing government support for developing driverless vehicles are the major factors anticipated to aid the growth of global semi & fully autonomous vehicle market during the forecast period. Moreover, foray of technology giants such as Google and Intel, among others, in autonomous vehicle market is further encouraging adoption of autonomous vehicles, thereby positively influencing the global semi & fully autonomous vehicle market.

According to the recently published report by TechSci Research, “Global Autonomous Car Technology Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2035 – ADAS, Semi-Autonomous, Fully-Autonomous”, global autonomous car technology market is expected to witness a CAGR of over 10% through 2035. The market is currently dominated by ADAS segment, which is expected to maintain its dominance over the next twenty years as well. The dominance of this segment can be attributed to anticipated increase in government regulations pertaining to integration of ADAS technologies in passenger cars. Further, semi-autonomous car technology is expected to witness robust growth over the next ten years, owing to anticipated decline in its average selling price coupled with rising volume sales. Region-wise, North America has emerged as the largest contributor in the market for autonomous car technology, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East North Africa (MENA). Global autonomous car technology market is primarily divided into three segments - Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) car technologies, semi-autonomous car technology and fully-autonomous car technology. ADAS technologies are currently moving at a brisk pace because of rising inclination towards greater automation. Moreover, fully-autonomous cars are expected to be commercially available by 2025, which is expected to translate into dramatic growth in the market.