Uber announces $1B self-driving investment ahead of IPO

Toyota and Japanese supplier Denso will invest a combined $667 million.

Uber has announced a $1 billion investment in its self-driving division ahead of the company's initial public offering.

Notably, Toyota and Japanese supplier Denso will contribute a combined $667 million while SoftBank accounts for the remaining $333 million.

Toyota last year invested $500 million, kicking off a collaboration that aims to deploy Sienna-based ridesharing vehicles on the Uber network by 2021.

The latest announcement deepens the companies' collaboration in designing and developing next-generation autonomous vehicle hardware. The extra cash is also expected to be used for mass production and commercialization efforts.

"We believe that the combined work of Toyota, DENSO, and Uber ATG on developing next-generation autonomous vehicle hardware will accelerate the timeline for and early success of automated ridesharing services," says Toyota Connected Company president Shigeki Tomoyama.

Uber's Advanced Technologies Group is widely believed to be far behind leader Waymo. The ride-sharing company is carefully restarting its testing program after one of its experimental cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona early last year.

Photo by Ronan Glon.