Toyota mobility tech unit CEO Kuffner to leave post By Reuters

By Daniel Leussink

TOKYO (Reuters) – James Kuffner, the chief government of Toyota Motor (NYSE:)’s autonomous driving expertise unit Woven by Toyota, will step down from his publish efficient Oct. 1, the subsidiary mentioned in an announcement on Thursday.

Kuffner will probably be appointed a senior fellow at a brand new unit that Toyota Motor will set up in October to drive software-related enterprise and improvement, the world’s greatest automaker by gross sales mentioned in a separate assertion.

The brand new organisation, which will probably be named the Software program Growth Middle, will consolidate present software-related features that belong to different Toyota models, together with these targeted on security and linked automobile expertise.

Kuffner had joined the Toyota Analysis Institute in 2016 and later served because the automaker’s chief digital officer and as a board member. He left the board in June.

He will probably be changed by Hajime Kumabe as chief government of Woven by Toyota, pending approval by the unit’s board, the assertion mentioned.

Kumabe is presently serving as high government of J-QuAD Dynamics, an automatic driving-focused agency arrange in April 2019 by Denso, Aisin and two different suppliers to Toyota.

Toyota established Woven Planet in 2021 to spend money on and develop mobility with synthetic intelligence.

The unit can also be creating an automotive software program platform, Arene, and constructing a testing website named Woven Metropolis for mobility-related methods and providers in Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo.

Akihiro Sarada, an engineer who oversaw the event of the corporate’s newest Crown vary, will probably be named president of Toyota’s new Software program Growth Middle, the automaker mentioned.

One of many unit’s government vice-presidents will probably be Denso’s Chief Expertise Officer Yoshifumi Kato, who will proceed in his function on the provider on the identical time.