Toyota Renews Investment in Collaborative Safety Research Center with Five-Year, <br/>$30 Million USD Commitment to Drive Next Phase of Safety Innovation

• Funds for projects designed to explore the safety needs of evolving mobility ecosystem and analyze protection for vulnerable and at-risk populations on our roads


• Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center has received $85 million USD for collaborative safety technology research to help reduce traffic fatalities and injuries since 2011

ANN ARBOR, Michigan – NOVEMBER 9, 2021– The pursuit of safe mobility involves a continuous flow of novel ideas and breakthrough innovations to help reduce the number of traffic fatalities. Toyota created the Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) in 2011 to advance safety for the industry as a whole through open partnerships with universities, hospitals and other institutions. Today, the pioneering research centre announced plans for its next phase of automotive safety projects, backed by a five-year, $30 million USD commitment.

“Humans are at the centre of Toyota’s technology development strategy, so we are designing our new safety research in pursuit of ‘Safety for All,’” said Dr. Danil Prokhorov, Director of Toyota’s Future Research Department (FRD) and CSRC. “As part of this, our projects will explore the diversity of safety needs and analyze safe mobility options that accommodate different applications, physical characteristics and levels of accessibility for people and society.”

Over the last 10 years, CSRC has received $85 million USD to help make the roads a safer place for everyone. Projects have ranged from foundational research into the factors that lead to distracted driving to development of tools and testing procedures related to the efficacy of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

CSRC has identified three new research tracks to guide its work over the next five years. This will ensure its work evolves to address the emerging challenges of the changing mobility ecosystem. The three interrelated tracks weave together the diverse interdisciplinary backgrounds of CSRC’s team, emphasizing agility, shorter project lengths and more rapid results. As it has in the past, CSRC will continue to seek out partnerships to address safety issues facing at-risk and vulnerable populations.

New CSRC Research Tracks

• Human-Centric: Helping everyone understand, benefit from and interact with the mobility technologies of today and tomorrow. Example areas include new technology training and customer health and wellness.

• Safety Assurance: Enhancing the safe operation of future mobility technologies, especially automated driving systems, by studying the traffic environment, human drivers and possible safety hazards. Example areas include deeper understanding of interactions between road users as well as driver engagement in automation.

• Assessment: Empowering the decisions of individual customers and industry stakeholders by identifying quantitative mobility safety measures. Example areas include new crash protection measures and repeatable test scenarios for new driver assistance and automated features.

Since its inception, CSRC has completed 85 research projects with more than 25 different institutions (including some Canadian institutions), published over 260 research papers and engaged more than 300 researchers who have publicly shared the output globally.

TMNA R&D

Toyota Motor North America Research & Development (TMNA R&D) aims to redefine next-generation vehicles to more than simply a form of transportation.  Since 1984, Toyota has been awarded more patents than any other automaker, including autonomous vehicle patents (more than 1,400). Centered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Toyota TMNA R&D puts the brightest thinkers from across the globe together to focus on letting people live more safely and comfortably. Globally, Toyota spends approximately $1 million per hour on R&D to ensure that Toyota rapidly and continuously develops cutting-edge, high-quality, and appealing vehicles.