Toyota to invest $500 mil. in Uber in driverless car tie-up

NEW YORK. KAZINFORM Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will invest $500 million in ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc. in a new partnership around self-driving vehicles.

The deal will see the two firms use their driverless technology in vehicles based on Toyota's Sienna minivans and begin piloting the program in 2021, KYODO NEWS reports.

Toyota, which invested an unspecified amount in Uber in 2016, dubbed the platform "Autono-MaaS," named after "autonomous mobility as a service."

"Combining efforts with Uber...could further advance future mobility," said Shigeki Tomoyama, a Toyota executive vice president in a statement.

Toyota's move also comes after Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. acquired a 15 percent stake in Uber for $7.7 billion in January, becoming the top shareholder in the U.S. company.