Toyota announced plans to hire additional people and expand office space at its Plano headquarters
Toyota Connected is planning to double its headcount and expand its office space in Plano, Texas, in an area adjacent to Toyota Motor North America’s new headquarters.
Toyota Connected is the data science hub for the automaker’s global operations; it supports a broad range of initiatives for consumers, businesses and governments.
The hub was created to expand Toyota’s capabilities in the fields of vehicle data science, machine learning and contextual data services development throughout its global operations.
Founded in April 2016, Toyota Connected initially planned to employ a staff of 100, and has already hired about 55 technologists, including data scientists, engineers and software developers. The hub now plans to employ 200 people and also aims to add 13,500 square feet to its existing 20,000-square-foot lease in the Urban Village office block in Plano.
“The amount of interest and demand in leveraging our big data to create new products and services has been incredible,” said Zack Hicks, Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Connected, and Chief Information Officer at Toyota Motor North America. “Over the past year we’ve been scaling up to deliver on these new opportunities, which will significantly impact the way consumers interact with vehicles.”
The group is currently developing Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform, a global, cloud-based digital ecosystem that will enable a host of mobility services such as ride sharing, car sharing, and remote delivery. “Our mobility platform offers more functionality within the vehicle itself, but it goes way beyond that,” Hicks said. “We’re exploring services to manage fleets, expand ride-sharing capabilities and leverage big data to contextually and intuitively improve services for our customers to deliver an amazing experience.”
The company delivers wireless services using Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure platform.