Toyota to jointly develop autonomous driving system with Uber through a $500 million investment

In its next big investment, Toyota is set to slate a $500 million deal with Uber to develop driverless cars. 

The Japanese auto giant has made the investment on the sidelines of the supply of Uber's driverless tech to Toyota Sienna Minivans. "Rather than owning and operating the fleet of self-driving vehicles, these minivans will be owned and operated by an agreed upon third party, a new business model for Uber," the statements said. 

In the recent times, Toyota, as well as Uber, has been said to be lagging in the hotly competitive self-driving auto industry. However, the new partnership is aimed at developing a new outlook towards the segment and jointly contribute enough to match its major rivals in the coming future. 

Since the accident involving a self-driven Uber SUV that killed a pedestrian in Arizona in March, the ride-hailing company has taken its autonomous vehicle services off the road and shuttered its operations in its autonomous testing hub, Arizona.

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Through the collaboration, Uber will combine its autonomous tech with Toyota's Guardian technology, which currently offers basic measures such as lane keeping without any dedicated auto-pilot mode. 

The new tech jointly developed by the two will be seen in all the Toyota Sienna Minivans that would b deployed in Uber's network from 2021 onwards, Uber said.

Toyota's investment values Uber at $72 million which is similar to the deal with Alphabet Inc. self-driving sector Waymo. Post the Arizona accident, the self-driving wing of Uber has invited over $891 million worth of loss in the second quarter of this year. 

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In their previous partnership, Uber had teamed up with Toyota for an electric mobility project. An undisclosed sum was invented by Toyota in Uber with which the two partnered on a car-leasing program for Uber drivers. 

This plan comes amid its plans to triple its car production in China. The Japanese giant which still leads the table as Asia's largest automaker has aimed at manufacturing close to  3.5 million vehicles annually in China by 2030.