Thank you very much for your attendance today. Let me inform you of the logistics. At 2:00 p.m., the presenters will come up from here to the center of the stage, and then the two will move to the side. President Sato of Toyota will do the presentation over there. After that presentation, from behind the MC, President Shimada will appear, and the two will shake hands and then will leave. President Shimada will do the presentation on the podium. So that is the first 20 minutes. Then we will change the scene for 5 minutes, and then Q&A for the media. During Q&A, we will remove the podium, and in front of the monitor, we will have four seats and do the Q&A for media. After that, we have photo session time. We will take 3 to 5 minutes to change the scene, the setup, and then photo.
Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your attendance. To start, the two presidents will talk about the topic on hand. Their presentations will be followed by a Q&A session. Please be with us until the very end of the program. From both companies, NTT and Toyota, Mr. Akira Shimada, President and CEO of NTT, and Mr. Koji Sato, President of Toyota Motor Corporation. I would like to invite them to start the presentation. The floor is yours, Mr. Sato.
NTT and Toyota have agreed to collaborate on building an AI and communication infrastructure in the field of mobility to work toward achieving a society free of traffic accidents. I would like to begin by explaining the background to this new chapter in our collaborative efforts. The starting point of both NTT and Toyota is a desire to enrich people's lives. So from that base, our two companies have long provided products and services that enhance the value of mobility of people, goods, and information to help create a safe, convenient society. As we enter an era in which cars are linked to society through the advancement of connected technologies, it becomes more important to create the social infrastructure in which cars and information and communications are integrated. It is in this context that the collaboration between these two companies began. First, since 2017, we have been working together to develop technologies necessary to spread connected cars, such as data processing platforms. Since 2020, we have been expanding our scope from cars to communities and working under the theme of creating a foundation for smart cities. We've deepened our collaborative relationship from a broader perspective of a mobility society. And now, as the next step, we'll work together to build an AI and communications infrastructure that will support the mobility society with an aim to accelerate efforts to change the future of cars.
To create diverse value in mobility by expanding the value of cars and integrating cars into social systems, we believe that the driving force of this effort will be software-defined vehicles, or SDVs. Today, as a car maker, the most important values that SDVs can provide are safety and security. In other words, contributing to achieving a society with zero traffic accidents. This will also lead to our goal of providing mobility for all. To create safe and secure SDVs that are connected to society, first, our vehicle structure needs to change. We will revise our software platform as well as our electronics platform. For example, we will overhaul our electronic control systems to enable the extraction and collection of necessary data through smart and appropriate means of communication, as well as frequent updating of software. Building on these platforms, the key to safe and secure SDVs is the evolution of automated driving technologies that utilize AI and communications.
Please take a look at this graph. This is the number of accidents in Japan by type over the past decade. Accidents have decreased thanks to the widespread use of active safety technologies. However, we still account for a large proportion of vehicle accidents, and further efforts are needed to address the many accidents at intersections with poor visibility or when turning right or left. Given such realities, we aim to take two approaches. One is data-driven development. We will implement AI that can continuously learn from market-derived driving data and that can generate various driving scenarios and learn with a small set of data. This will enable us to increase simulation accuracy and rapidly improve software, further enhancing the performance of autonomous vehicle control. At the same time, another important initiative in moving closer to a society with zero traffic accidents will be a three-pronged infrastructure collaboration approach. If cars can constantly collect information on infrastructure, people, and other vehicles, we can reduce blind spots that affect many traffic accidents. Also, AI learning that information will make it possible to provide driving assistance that accurately predicts the movements of pedestrians and surrounding vehicles. Through these efforts, we will work hard to realize a high level of safety and security in a variety of situations, such as preventing poor visibility accidents at urban intersections, allowing for smooth expressway merging, and providing automated driving services that address suburban mobility challenges. We believe we can step closer to a society with zero traffic accidents in a three-pronged approach by utilizing AI and communications more for cars.
To achieve this, we will build three foundations as a mobility AI platform. One is the development of distributed computing resources or data centers. We calculate that as the number of SDVs increases, our necessary communications volume will grow 22 times and computational volume 150 times by 2030 compared to today. We will establish distributed data centers to support this enormous computational volume by utilizing NTT's IOWN technology. The next is highly reliable next-generation communications. With AI determining in real time the optimal communication method according to the traffic environment, we will create the foundation for high-speed, seamless communications necessary for three-pronged infrastructure collaboration. Lastly is an AI platform. Based on data collected using computational resources and a communications infrastructure, we will create AI models leading to the implementation of various services such as automated driving and AI agents and the creation of new value. NTT and Toyota will work toward fully constructing their mobility AI platform by 2030. And through open innovation, we will work with a view towards standardization so that we can promote the use of our mobility AI platform with many partners. Through this collaboration, NTT and Toyota will take a major step toward changing the future of cars. President Shimada values the power of people and taking up challenges above all else to give the world new value. I feel exactly the same. We believe that the future is for us to build together. I'm very encouraged to be able to take on with our like-minded partner NTT this challenge of creating social infrastructure that will enrich people's lives. We will change the future of cars with AI and communications. From here, I would like to ask President Shimada to provide us with details on our initiatives.
Thank you for joining us at this joint press conference for NTT and Toyota Motor Company. We appreciate you joining us today. Integrating mobility and telecommunications, we will create a social infrastructure that enriches people's lives. After a meeting with Mr. Sato, the president of Toyota Motor, we were able to once again identify, share, and align our vision for collaboration between the two companies, and we want to further evolve this vision. We are very excited to be able to take the first step toward making this vision a reality with the presentation. In reference to the vision and the concept, primarily I will explain about the technology that will make all this a reality. We also want to transform vehicles with AI and communications, becoming smarter and safer. Continuous collection of operational vehicles, drivers, and infrastructure such as roads for use in AI learning, we will make cars even smarter and safer. Making AI and platforms that support mobility more sustainable, that is what we want to achieve. So we will realize sustainability through local production for local consumption, renewable energy for distributed data centers, and low-power-consuming networks and infrastructure. So through this strategy, we intend to realize sustainability going forward.
Now, the key to achieving this is NTT's concept entitled IOWN. IOWN is the next-generation communications infrastructure that goes beyond limitations of existing infrastructure by collecting data from cars and people on the move from towns and achieving high-speed, low-power processing of vast amounts of data. IOWN is made up of three elements. The first element is an all-photonics network, a wireless network that connects everything at high speed with low latency. The second is digital twin computing, which makes highly accurate predictions through various simulations. And the third is the cognitive foundation, which collects everything and optimizes ICT resources. The three technological elements of IOWN are key technologies that are essential for achieving a prosperous and sustainable society. We will be able to anticipate the mobility society by accessing large amounts of data in real time from car cameras and sensors via a low-latency network, and then simulating the core data using digital twin computing. We will then optimize the whole system using the cognitive foundation. And by efficiently using these three foundations with low power consumption, we believe that we will be able to realize these concepts. Owing to the low latency and high-capacity, high-quality features of IOWN, it will be possible to continue to collect the ever-changing information from vehicles in motion on a real-time basis. And due to its overwhelming power efficiency, it will be possible to collect and process data with low power consumption. It will also function as a mobility infrastructure that enriches people's lives by integrating mobility and information and communications.
NTT is providing network services on a global scale. For example, we have submarine cable which offers fastest speed of 400 GB per second. We also have more than 500 POPs in 200 different locations of the world. We also have the Tier-1 network which is able to offer connectivity that covers the whole world. We are also the world's third-largest data center provider, operating 202 data center buildings in 149 locations in more than 20 countries and regions. As you can see, NTT Group already has the global connectivity and data centers necessary to create a social infrastructure that enriches people's lives through the integration of mobility and information and communications. First, we will build a computing infrastructure in data centers in Japan and connect it with IOWN. This is a distributed computing infrastructure that accumulates and processes vast amounts of data collected from vehicles and other sources. Next, in order to collect data from vehicles in real time, we will utilize the network provided by NTT, select the most appropriate communication using AI, and collect various data by linking people, mobility, and infrastructure through seamless communications. LMM, Large Mobility Data Model, is a mobility AI that learns from vast amounts of data from human mobility infrastructures. LMM provides mobility solutions by directly inputting and analyzing not only language but also various multimodal data. Combining such AI, we will create an affluent society with diverse mobility services such as zero traffic accidents, advanced automated driving, and people-oriented AI agents. Toyota and NTT will build a mobility AI platform consisting of distributed computing infrastructure, intelligent communications infrastructure, and AI platform. The results of the collaboration to date, as well as the technologies and know-how that both companies have cultivated through R&D, will be utilized to realize a safe and secure future mobility society.
Finally, let me present the roadmap. Toyota and NTT will start developing the mobility AI platform starting today. And from around 2028, together with various partners, we will begin social implementation of a mobility society initiative based on the three-pronged infrastructure collaboration approach, aiming for widespread expansion after 2030. By 2030, the two companies will invest 500 billion yen to vigorously promote this initiative. Toyota and NTT are envisioning the future of mobility, AI, and communications to create a better world and a prosperous society. We want to increase the number of people who support this initiative and expand the circle of this initiative. That is how we see it. I sincerely hope that President Sato's desire to change the future of automobiles will be realized one by one through the human power of both companies and our partners to create a livable Earth and an affluent society. We hope you will look forward to our future efforts. Thank you very much for your attention.
We'll be moving on to the Q&A session. Please bear with us as we prepare the stage for the Q&A session. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you. We would like to start the Q&A session. I would like to invite all attendees to take the stage. Please join us on the stage. From NTT, President and CEO Mr. Akira Shimada. Also from Toyota Motor Corporation, Executive Vice President Mr. Shigeru Hayakawa, and President and CEO Mr. Koji Sato. And from NTT, Senior Fellow Mr. Koto. I would like to ask the attendees to take the seats now. Thank you. To start the Q&A session, we first take questions from those media representatives who are on site. When you have questions, please raise your hand and please wait for the microphone to be brought over to you. When you're designated, please say your name and affiliation and then go on to your question. We would like to ask that you limit yourself to two questions at a time so that we can take questions from as many people as possible. So we look forward to your cooperation. Let's start from the person in the third row, the person in the striped shirt. Please go ahead with your question.
Thank you very much. My name is from NHK. I'd like to ask you to address the following question first. Automobiles and telecommunications, can you talk about the meaning of the combination between cars and telecom? Also, can you talk about the significance of the three-pronged approach as well? Also, how do you see the traffic accidents? What type of society would you like to create in the face of the traffic accident-related challenges?
May I start? Thank you. First of all, myself, Sato, would like to respond to your question. And thank you for your question. By the way, let me address the first question: the meaning of the collaboration between cars, autos, and telecommunications. As mentioned at the outset, creating a three-pronged mobility society, this is a very important vision, I believe. Now, we focused on safety and security, and we focused on autonomous mobility technology evolution. We've been working on advancing such technology on a standalone basis. We need a more advanced mobility environment. In order to do that, we need to make sure that mobility and autos, mobility and cars, can come together to create infrastructure for the society. So that being the case, we believe that our collaboration with NTT as partners will be very significant. It will be very significant in terms that both companies would be involved in creating the necessary infrastructure to realize our society. Let me address your second question about the traffic accidents, how we see the challenges posed by traffic accidents. I showed you the graph in the presentation. With the advances in technology, the total number of accidents is declining. But then, as the graph also indicates, we now see saturation in the declining rate of the accidents. So going forward, how do we further reduce accidents? If we want to, it's about we need to anticipate the potential risks if we want to further reduce the accidents. So we need to change from passive to a more active mode. We need to anticipate various requirements, I believe. So that is so. In order to address these issues, I believe that we'll be able to have technological developments between the two companies that will be very, very meaningful. So what type of society, what society would you like to achieve? In one word, okay, mobility safety and security. That is the top priority for us. So creating a secure mobility society, that is the most important priority for us. Thank you.
Thank you. To respond, yes, the three-pronged approach: people, mobility, and infrastructure. Indeed, we need to make sure that we create that in the overall environment. We need to create infrastructure and a basis for that. Conventionally, autos for autos, we had the independent positions, independent categories. But if we can bring these together, then we'll be able to combine three elements very effectively. For that purpose, as is mentioned by Mr. Sato right now, we need to focus on securing safety and security for the people. We are partners that we can share this very important concept together. At the same time, the infrastructure for such evolution, we must achieve, must be for a more sustainable society. So that being the case, we have been advocating the notion of IOWN devices. Using those devices, we can actually offer such infrastructure based on low-power consumption. We believe that will contribute to the pursuit of sustainability. We will be able to respond to the requirements of the society through such initiatives. The new collaboration between our companies will pave the way for creating new value for the future. This will represent a major step toward achieving that goal. Thank you.
Next question, please. Towards the right area, the front row, in a gray jacket, please.
This is from Nikkei newspaper. Thank you. I have two questions. First is a question to President Sato of Toyota. So in this initiative, you talk about autonomous driving. The driverless driving development competition is occurring around the world. And what is the AI, the foundation of your development in autonomous driving? And second question for both presidents: the standardization of mobility, you talked about. So in your initiative, will this standardization be in Japan, or are you looking to the world? And if there is a blueprint or roadmap, if you are going to go global with this? Thank you very much.
Thank you. So allow me to go first. So Toyota's view on autonomous driving. First, our thinking of autonomous driving is autonomous driving is just a method. The safe and secure mobility society is the starting point. So this three-pronged environment needs to be established, and as one method, autonomous driving will play a role. We are an automotive manufacturer, so when we think of autonomous driving, we have to be people-centered. That is an unwavering stance. In other words, rather than resorting to the driving to the environment and infrastructure, we always need to be people-centered. And by doing so, the freedom of mobility can be secured. But we cannot do this in one goal level. It's not about aiming for a certain level like we did in the past. We need to be people-centered autonomous driving. Secure, safe, and secure driving environment is the KPI. So the ideal situation cannot be developed overnight. We need to resolve the challenges one by one. And as we enhance the level of driving, we will be able to realize this in the world. Thank you very much.
So, to answer your second question. So first, our initiative, we will first lay the groundwork for the standardization in Japan and then, of course, think of the global expansion. The regulation and the traffic situation and communication circumstances differ from country to country. So we want to first build the base model in Japan. So Mobility AI Platform is the name we have given to this platform. This is one infrastructure we want. We do not think we can develop this just with the two of us. We need to partner with various stakeholders and players to build this platform. First, we will work with various partners in Japan and focus on establishing this platform. Of course, both Toyota and NTT are global companies operating in a global environment. So at a later stage, we want to make it go global. Thank you very much.
Other questions? Next question, please. The person in the navy blue jacket, please.
My name is from TV Tokyo. Thank you for this opportunity. My first question is addressed to Mr. Sato. I would like to ask Mr. Sato the following question. You talked about the three-pronged approach and you talked about continuous connection. This concept, I believe, overlaps with the Woven City concept as well. So, are there different ideas to actually implement what you're doing with NTT into the Woven City project as well going forward? My second question is addressed to Mr. Shimada. You talked about how you want to expand the number of partners going forward. So I think creating partnerships is the key to your AI project, isn't it? So on that note, from 2028, you mentioned that you want to pursue partnership with a very large number of parties and partners. What specific verticals or industries are you focusing on in terms of partnerships? Thank you very much. Those are my two questions. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. Myself, Sato, would like to respond to your first question. So the relationship between this new collaboration and our Woven City initiative. NTT and Toyota Motor Company are partnering with the Google Partners as Woven City project. We're already in consideration with concrete matters. Now, it is about people-centric...
Concept and want to test mobility. These are the major missions for this city project. So through this collaboration, if concrete, we can actually might be able to test that in the over city context. As far as the timeline is concerned, as mentioned by Mr. Shimada, we have certain timelines in place and we hope that we'll be able to work each concrete theme one by one against that backdrop of schedule. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. I'd like to respond to your question about IOWN. You mentioned that yes, the key concept behind is partnership and we thank you for understanding that concept. We have 150 companies that belong to the global IOWN program and the number of partners are increasing as we speak. The mobility platform and global forum will not be directly involved in the creation of this mobility platform that that topic of today's presentation. We consider various test cases, possible cases in the context of global forum. So with regard to potential mobility use case might be for consideration, I think it could be linked. But having said that, if we to start creating the foundation here in Japan, then the members of the global forum are actually global members. Of course, there are many Japanese companies are members of the global forum, but I think we might also have to ask participation from other Japanese companies as well. So creating new partnerships, that new initiative, that new work will be needed. I mentioned that we will be starting from 2028. That schedule was provided in material earlier, but maybe from much earlier phase, maybe we could to start working on partnerships that would be willing to offer assistance. I mentioned that we will be seeking partnerships in very broad industries. Software, you need partnership software for example. We also need more perhaps partnerships in other industries where we need to work with people that offer physical infrastructure as well. We need to consider partnerships in all different type of areas. So fully, as we consider that, thank you.
Other questions? So right side, second from the front at the wall, please.
Newspaper, Mima is my name. I have questions to two presidents. So from 2025, AI mobility platform development will start and from 2028 you will work with partners, collaboration with other partners. So to realize this, the format of the two companies' collaboration, if you could share with us anything, I would appreciate it. And when you build partnership, IOWN global forum, are you going to build something of that sort? Thank you.
Thank you very much for the question. So first of all, the format, we do not have a concrete idea on what it will look like yet. So the most effective and the quickest forum need to be discussed and decided going forward. One option is to set up a joint venture, but another option is to do this on a project basis. First, we will gather experts from both companies and form a project team. I think that will be the starting point. But the operational format further down the road will need to be considered as we move forward. So I'm sorry, but I cannot share with you a clear picture on what this will look like, but we have to be speedy. So we should not just start from a fixed format. We will start from some action and go from there. Whether we should set up a global forum form of group where the members can participate, we're not sure yet. But IOWN global forum is characterized by the fact that it's headquartered in Japan. So we will think of the optimal form this time around. Thank you.
May I? Yes, of course. Thank you for the question. So if I could add to that comment, the contents, we are still at the initial feasibility study to think of the content. So rather than thinking of the format, we are still trying to launch a project right away so that we can share ideas right away. Vital leaders, energetic leaders. So we are discussing very frankly and deeply and Y is also involved from our side and we are already starting to put the issues and points into perspective. So over time, we will have a clear view on the format we should have. Thank you very much.
Next question, please. Next question, please. The person in the blue, in the black pullover, thank you.
I'm from KY Press. Thank you for this opportunity. I'd like to ask two questions. You talked about how you want to expand new partnerships from around 2028, correction 2028, and you also talked about the possibility of global operations down the road. Specific organizations or companies which like for this need to be used? Are enlisting usage by automakers other than Toyota? Is that a possibility? Another question, you mentioned about IOWN, talk about the global forum at IOWN, and you mentioned that this was based in the United States. But China and Russia, I think you've included these two markets in your evolution. How do you see China and Russia in your global operations going down the line? Thank you.
I'd like to respond to your first question. I'd like to show you one of the PowerPoints. Please bear with us. We want to show you a PowerPoint. Can you see it? I hope you can see it. Yes, thank you. So this is the total picture of the infrastructure which we are trying to create. This is the structure of the infrastructure which you want to create. And in the middle, you'll find optimal option through real-time AI. This will be created by entity and Toyota, but this will not be fully complete. We need partners. We need to work to integrate that will link to this AI, this domain. We should not wait until that to work on this. We need to consider approaching companies in open mind who can take part in these domains. Maybe this could be a potential competition as well. Could be the services being considered by various companies. What are they? What type of infrastructure can we create? I think this is a domain with regard to this foundation which will be served by Toyota and entity. This will be a collaboration domain. It's important that we robustly create the infrastructure through strong leadership of two companies. But if other companies are interested in taking part in that, we want to make sure that they are encouraged to take part. With regard to the actual telecommunication part, the end-to-end communication part, we have various parties and operators that are involved in this. So within that framework, we want to approach various parties. So it's important that we create this total venture as soon as possible. So that's how we want to address this situation. Would you like to add?
Yes, thank you. Thank you for your question. As was mentioned by Mr. Shimada earlier, the technological development, one is to make sure that we create strong computation infrastructure. We'll be using AI. We also want to make sure that we also create distributed computation infrastructure as well. There are technological developments we need to work on. Once the distributed computational infrastructure is created, who will be coming, who will take part in that? This will be a relationship where we ask people to leverage our own technology, which means that we need to be very open and make sure that we are able to have the facility understanding among different parties so that they'll be willing to take part. Also, continuous smart, correction, continuous wireless connection, mobile connection, this is also very important as well. We need to create telecommunication infrastructure, technology which has not existed up until now. It's important that we have telecommunication that can offer information at any given time. We need connection, seamless. In the auto domain, it's connected or not connected, but that's not the case. We need to make sure that we offer smart, it's important that we offer a seamless connection. So the upper layer, once we create this upper layer technology, then we hope that various telecommunication players will be able to leverage that, use the technology. So that being the case, we're looking for partners and we want to expand the partnerships in this area in this manner. Thank you.
If I could confirm, so what about automakers other than Toyota? Are you considering delivery of the services to automakers other than Toyota?
Yes, we're considering standardization. We want to make sure that technology becomes standard, not just that, should be global standardization. It's important that we hope that we can encourage other automakers also to make use of this technology.
