Electronics and other non-automotive companies are eager to expand their businesses in the auto industry where innovations will be key factors amid the growing need for autonomous and electrified vehicles. At the Tokyo Motor Show, open to the public from Friday to Nov. 4, many electronics firms including Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are showcasing their products and services. Such companies are trying to take advantage of their experience and knowledge to manufacture motors, inverters and sensors that are indispensable to assemble autonomous and electrified cars. More than 50 percent of vehicles will be fully or partly powered by electricity by 2040, according to an estimate by the International Energy Agency. Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd., an automotive business unit of Hitachi group, produces motors and inverters for electric vehicles as well as electronic control units of advanced driving assistance systems.

Electronics firms and other non-automotive companies are eager to expand their businesses in the auto sector, where innovations are seen as essential amid the growing need for autonomous and electric vehicles. At the Tokyo Motor Show, open to the public from Friday to Nov. 4, many electronics firms including Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are showcasing their products and services. Such companies are trying to take advantage of their experience and knowledge to manufacture motors, inverters and sensors that will become indispensable to assemble autonomous and electric cars. More than 50 percent of vehicles will be fully or partly powered by electricity by 2040, according to an estimate by the International Energy Agency. Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd., an automotive unit of Hitachi group, produces motors and inverters for electric vehicles as well as electronic control units for advanced driving assistance systems.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp and group suppliers Denso Corp and Aisin Seiki Co said on Friday they would form a joint venture for researching and developing automated-driving technology, investing more than 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion).

SoftBank Robotics Corp. ("SoftBank Robotics") and SoftBank Corp. ("SoftBank") today announced that its humanoid robot'Pepper' will support Google's Android, and that presales of models for developers will begin from July 2016. Ahead of the presales launch, starting today SoftBank Robotics will offer a beta version of'Pepper SDK for Android Studio', a software development kit that enables the development of RoboApps on the Android platform. By making Pepper compatible with Android, Android application developers will be able to utilize their existing knowledge and technologies to develop RoboApps for Pepper. With the high number of Android developers around the world, the possibilities for Pepper RoboApp developers will greatly increase with Android support. SoftBank Robotics will continue to provide its SDK, 'Choregraphe'.