TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor and Alphabet's Waymo said on Wednesday they will explore collaborating on the development of a new autonomous vehicle platform and ways to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles (POVs).
Toyota will build the platform, which will be deployed in Waymo's autonomous vehicle fleet, a Waymo spokesperson said. The companies will also explore how they can leverage Waymo's AV technology for Toyota's POVs, the spokesperson added.
"The companies aim to further accelerate the development and adoption of driver assistance and automated driving technologies for POVs," Toyota and Waymo said in a joint statement.
The companies said they will discuss the possibility of expanding the scope of their cooperation, adding that Toyota's autonomous driving technology unit Woven by Toyota will join the potential collaboration.
Waymo has been focusing on growing its presence through partnerships with automakers such as Hyundai and Zeekr and other players such as ride-hailing firm Uber. The plans with Hyundai and Zeekr remain in place, the spokesperson said.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said last week that people may be able to own Waymo's self-driving taxis in the future.
Earlier this month, Waymo, which spun out of Google in 2016, started collecting data in Tokyo with test rides operated by human drivers to map key areas of the Japanese capital and get a better understanding of local infrastructure and driving patterns.
Woven by Toyota is developing an automotive software platform, Arene, and setting up a testing site named Woven City for mobility-related systems and services in Shizuoka Prefecture, west of Tokyo.
(Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Jacqueline Wong)
