Toyota is forming a $2.8-billion company for self-driving research

The partners will invest 300 billion yen or around $2.8 billion to achieve that goal and are already in the process of looking for the perfect location for their headquarters in Tokyo. Once that's done, they plan to staff up the HQ with 1,000 employees, both newly hired and taken from their own personnel. Dr. James Kuffner, the new company's CEO, said in a statement: "Building production-quality software is a critical success factor for Toyota's automated driving program. This company's mission is to accelerate software development in a more effective and disruptive way, by augmenting the Toyota Group's capability through the hiring of world-class software engineers. We will recruit globally, and I am thrilled to lead this effort."