Japan’s NTT plans to test driverless vehicle technology with Toyota and invest in a US start-up developing self-driving systems, a spokesman for the ICT firm said on Monday.
NTT aims to start tests with autonomous buses and taxis as early as 2025 and invest about ¥10-billion (R1.2-billion) in US start-up May Mobility, the spokesman said, highlighting growing momentum behind self-driving technology in Japan.
The Nikkei newspaper first reported on Monday that NTT will invest in May Mobility, adding that both NTT and Toyota would jointly develop vehicles. Both the NTT spokesman and a Toyota spokesman said they had no plans for joint development. Toyota did not comment further.
May Mobility has attracted investments from Japanese firms before. Insurer Tokio Marine said last year it had joined a US$111-million funding round in the Michigan-based firm, while a Toyota-linked venture capital unit co-led a seed investment in the company in 2018.
NTT’s growing involvement in autonomous driving technology comes after Honda said in October it aimed to set up a joint venture with General Motors and its robo-taxi firm Cruise and wanted to begin a driverless ride service in Japan in early 2026.
Read: Dimension Data to be renamed NTT Data
Cruise late that month suspended all driverless vehicle operations in the US following an accident that led California regulators to order the company to remove its driverless cars from state roads. — Daniel Leussink, Maki Shiraki and Satoshi Sugiyama, (c) 2023 Reuters
