Effective January 2021, Toyota Research Institute - Advanced Development, Inc. will expand and improve its operations into a holding company and two operating companies. The holding company will be Woven Planet Holdings, Inc. and the two operating companies under it will be Woven CORE, Inc., which will develop, implement and scale automated driving technologies at its core; and Woven Alpha, Inc. (“Woven Alpha”), which will explore new business opportunities and incubate innovative projects that go beyond today’s Toyota Motor Corporation such as Woven City, Arene, and Automated Mapping Platform.

Arene is an open platform developed by TRI-AD to create programmable cars. It includes elements and APIs necessary for vehicle safety and enables speedy development from concept to deployment. It also allows developers and OEMs to continuously update their software in an agile way while maintaining a high level of safety and security.

The Automated Mapping Platform (AMP) is an open software platform that allows companies to create and share high-precision maps while companies share data on automated-driving vehicles.

TRI-AD was established in March, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan, to provide fully-integrated, production-quality software for automated driving. Over the past two years TRI-AD has made progress in fulfilling its vision and mission, including the development of the latest advanced driving assist technology called, “Teammate” based on the “Mobility Teammate Concept.” TRI-AD is now embarking on the next phase of its evolution to deliver mobility (including the mobility of people, goods, and information) to everyone, and in order to achieve this it is necessary to expand and improve the company’s operations.

In order effectively and efficiently to forge ahead with TRI-AD’s advanced development capabilities and to continue creating new value through automated driving, safety technologies, mobility, and Woven City, the Woven Planet Holdings group will focus on a more agile “software-first” development process and a Software Defined Architecture (SDA) for application services.

The SDA enables the extension of application services and software functionality with ease, allowing hardware to be designed in response to the changing times, while at the same time providing high value with agility.

Woven Planet Holdings will have the strategic decision-making function for the entire group, expand collaboration with partners, create new business opportunities, and provide corporate shared services to the operating companies.

Woven CORE will continue to be responsible for the development of the Toyota Group’s automated driving technologies, and it will aim to further improve value by developing, implementing, and scaling its automated driving technologies in the market.

Woven Alpha will explore new areas for business expansion and incubate new innovative projects such as Woven City, Arene, and AMP.