Toyota invests $500m in Uber to propel self-driving cars into reality

Japanese motoring giant Toyota has renewed its dedication to creating a self-driving car network on our streets, to the tune of a $500m (£387.6m) investment in ride-hailing firm Uber.

The company said late last night it will expand its partnership with Uber in an effort to bring to market "autonomous ride-sharing as a mobility service at scale", at a time when both firms lag behind their competitors in the self-driving space.

Toyota is set to provide purpose-built vehicles, impregnated with driverless tech from both firms, onto the Uber network. 

The deal represents another step by Uber towards outsourcing technology and physical car spend through new relationships, such as with European carmakers Volvo and Daimler.

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Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi said the firm's goal is to deploy the technology via Toyota's Sienna minivans by 2021.

A third party will own and operate the fleet of driverless cars, however Uber's head of business development Jeff Miller said that party has yet to be chosen.

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Toyota will also continue some development of its Guardian self-driving system, which provides automated safety features such as lane sensors but does not yet power a car without a driver, without sharing the research with Uber.

Executive vice president Shigeki Tomoyama said the "agreement and investment marks an important milestone in our transformation to a mobility company".

The investment values Uber at $72bn, marking no change from the valuation it received as part of a deal with Google-parent Alphabet's Waymo self-driving unit earlier this year.