Toyota is spending $50 million to establish a new Collaborative Safety Research Center in Ann Arbor, partnering with several prominent hospitals and universities, including the University of Michigan.
The new safety R&D center will be based in the Toyota Technical Center, where researchers from North America and Japan will work over the next five years.
"The vast majority of the $50 million will go to our research partners," says Chuck Gulash, senior executive engineer with the Toyota Technical Center. "It will support their principal investigators, researchers, and post-docs."
Toyota will work with U-M's Transportation Research Institute on a multidisciplinary project to assess the potential benefits of advanced safety systems in a systematic way, combining their expertise in driver behavior, crash data analysis, and driver modeling. The automaker is also working with Virginia Tech and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, among other institutions.
Toyota employs 1,179 people between its two tech centers in the Ann Arbor area. Although this new investment won't require more hiring at those centers, the company has a number of engineering and research job openings at both centers. For more information on those, click here.
Source: Chuck Gulash, senior executive engineer with the Toyota Technical Center
Writer: Jon Zemke
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