TOKYO — Toyota and NTT, Japan’s biggest automaker and the country’s top telecom company, will form a capital tie-up to team on commercializing a smart city business that leverages the widespread integration of such next-generation technologies as big data, cloud services, robotics, automated mobility and artificial technology.
The new systems will be deployed in real world test beds, such as the Woven City that Toyota is planning to build in Japan, and they will revolve around connected vehicles that are part of the social infrastructure, Toyota said on Tuesday in a statement.
To cement the partnership, the companies said each will buy a 200 billion yen ($1.81 billion) stake in the other through the purchase of treasury shares in April. The investments amount to a 2.07 percent stake in NTT for Toyota and a 0.9 percent stake in the automaker for NTT.
Toyota’s announced its Woven City in January, describing it as a 175-acre futuristic community at the base of Mount Fuji that…
