Japanese automakers have looked beyond the industry trend to develop self-driving cars and instead are focusing their attentions on developing robots in an effort to keep Japan's elderly population on the move. The country's population is ageing faster than the rest of the world and its birthrate continues to decrease. Toyota Motor Corp has recognized the potential in becoming a mass producer of robots in order to alleviate and help Japan's elderly citizens.

An agreement between Toyota Motor Europe, Sensible 4, Holo and Ruter has been announced to pave the way for new autonomous mobility deployments to be potentially integrated into Norway’s public transport network.

Japanese automotive manufacturer DENSO Corporation, along with Ericsson, Intel Corporation, Japanese telecom company NTT DOCOMO and Toyota announced that they have initiated the formation of the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium.

The two Japanese giants Toyota Motor Corp and SoftBank Group Corp announced their cooperation in developing mobility services for self-driving cars.

Toyota and NVIDIA are working together and using each others’ resources and research facilities to better their program for autonomous vehicle development. 

Toyota has invested 42.5 million yen into a project to develop a 'flying car' which they hope will be subsequently used to light up the Olympic flame for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games. Engineers showcased a demonstration of its 'flying car' at an event last week -and expressed their confidence that it will be able to design a model that will light the Olympic torch.

Toyota announced plans to convert the 175-acre site of a former car factory near Mount Fuji into Woven City, the world’s first programmable city located in Japan.

Nestled at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, Toyota’s Woven City, the world’s first “City of the Future” project, is set to welcome its first residents in fall 2025.