Toyota and NTT Agree to Collaborate on ICT Platform R&D for Connected Cars

Toyota Motor Corporation (Head Office: Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan; President and Representative Director: Akio Toyoda; “Toyota”) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Hiroo Unoura; “NTT”) have agreed to collaborate on developing, verifying, and standardizing technology in the connected car field, combining the automotive vehicle-related technologies of Toyota with the information and communication technologies (ICT) of NTT Group companies.

1. Aims of the Collaboration

Toyota and the NTT Group, sharing their technologies, knowledge and expertise, and making use of Big Data obtained from automotive vehicles, 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 at global level.

2. Areas of Collaboration

(1) Platform for data collection, accumulation, and analysis

• Create technologies for building and administering a platform to realize collection and accumulation of huge amounts of vehicle information and other data received from large numbers of vehicles, for distributing large amounts of data, and for analyzing and processing the collected Big Data in real time.

(2) IoT networks and data centers

• Study the network topology of global infrastructure and optimal data center deployment necessary for safe and reliable collection and distribution of large amounts of data, based on assumption of vehicle use cases.

(3) Next-generation communication technologies (5G, edge computing)

• Conduct studies to determine the optimal mobile communications system considering vehicle use cases and perform connection tests of such systems to promote 5G standardization for automotive vehicles, and verify the applicability of edge computing technology.

(4) Agents

• Develop technologies for providing drivers with user-friendly services by combining driving advice based on understanding of the environment inside and outside the vehicle, voice interaction technology, and other technologies by using AI (artificial intelligence).

3. Roles of Each Company

Toyota:

Based on 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.

NTT Group:
		NTT DATA Corporation		Based on its advanced analytics capability and experiences in supporting the social infrastructure in Japan, NTT DATA will develop technologies for building platform to realize collection, accumulation, and analysis of huge amounts of vehicle information.
		NTT Communications Corporation		Will establish next-generation global ICT infrastructure optimized to the IoT by leveraging its globally expanding ICT services (Tier 1 IP backbone, VPN and data centers).
		NTT DOCOMO, Inc.		Building on its role in leading standardization efforts for the next-generation 5G mobile communications system and in conducting advanced R&D, will promote 5G standardization for automotive vehicle use and lead the way in 5G mobile communication system trial.
		NTT		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 AI technology corevo®.*
		*corevo® is a registered trademark of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.

4. Coming Developments

A field trial is planned for 2018 to assess the feasibility and usability of representative services in the connected car field.

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Contact information

For further information about the contents of this release:
Toyota Motor Corporation
Public Affairs Division
(Tokyo Headquarters) +81-3-3817-9111 to 9117
(Nagoya) +81-52-552-0603 to 0609
or
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
Public Relations Office
Hiroyuki Sakura
ntt-cnr-ml@hco.ntt.co.jp