Toyota Ponders Tech Acquisitions

President Akio Toyoda tells shareholders that Toyota Motor Corp. may use mergers and acquisitions to gain advanced technologies needed to compete more aggressively, Reuters reports.

Toyoda concedes that the company may have focused too much on preserving the status quo when it should be confronting futuristic issues and ideas “that could affect us tomorrow.” Toyota has been relatively slow to embrace electric cars and autonomous driving technology.

The company current is spending 1 trillion yen ($9.2 billion) per year on research and product development, bolstering capital spending and buying back shares. But Toyoda says that those steps may not be enough the ensure the company’s long-term survival.