Toyota Ramps Up AI Research Institute

Toyota Motor Corp. has appointed seven senior executives and an advisory team to lead its new Toyota Research Institute.

Announced last November, TRI aims to accelerate Toyota’s research into artificial intelligence and robotics for next-generation vehicles and facilities. The initial five-year, $1 billion investment includes research centers in Palo Alto, Calif., and Cambridge, Mass., near partners Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively.  

TRI’s new executive team will be led by CEO Gill Pratt, who was hired in November. Other members include:

• Larry Jackel, a former Bell Labs department head
• Eric Krotkov, who previously was a DARPA program manager for the U.S. military
• James Kuffner, previous head of Google Robotics
• John Leonard, an MIT professor
• Hiroshi Okajima, a Toyota research and development project general manager
• Brian Storey, a mechanical engineering professor from Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass.
• Russ Tedrake, an MIT associate professor

Tedrake, Leonard and Storey will hold dual roles with TRI and their respective universities.

The advisory board includes the ex-director of the MIT Computer Science and AI Lab, ex-president of research and development at Walt Disney Imagineering, and the heads of Stanford's and MIT's AI laboratories. Other members include a former U.S. Navy Secretary and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan.

TRI expects to eventually employ about 200 researchers between its California and Massachusetts facilities, which were officially opened this month. By advancing AI/robotics, Toyota aims to improve vehicle safety and help make future models more accessible to the elderly and people with handicaps.