Toyota’s Woven Planet steps up acquisition drive with programmable car deal

Three elements

Arene consists of three elements that will make it a self-contained platform.

First, there is the embedded software on the car that runs everything from the advanced driver-assist systems to the digital cockpit controls. Then, there is a cloud component that handles all the data being transmitted from the vehicle.

Finally, there is a set of software tools that allow developers to test, deploy and update the software systems in the vehicles and in the cloud.

The approach is a nod to the reality that today’s cars, programmed with hundreds of millions of lines of code, are essentially rolling computers. The complexity of these on-board systems is spiraling exponentially as cars use more chips and more code, and as they increasingly collect massive amounts of data from the on-board sensors that monitor the world as they drive down the street.

A central challenge to keeping software updated and reliable is how to process all that data. And that is where Renovo fits in with its software system that dices and analyzes the digital river.

The sheer volume of data puts a premium on systems that can detect bugs and sort out the important bits from the drab — thereby ensuring that the new automotive operating system software has bulletproof reliability. Software platforms that run automobiles, where people’s lives are at stake, can’t afford the kind of glitches people tolerate in their smartphones.

Perfect partner

Renovo’s speed and accuracy in this technology make it a perfect partner, Kuffner said.

“We want really, really rock-solid stability. So we have to invest in that kind of production quality,” Kuffner said. “If we’re talking about advanced safety, the automated-driving features of the future, how can I respond to the huge multidimensional complexity of our world of traffic? The only way is to have very powerful tools that scale much better than manual testing.”

The creation of Woven Planet was announced last year as a holding company to subsume the subsidiary that handles Toyota’s automated-driving development, Toyota Research Institute – Advanced Development, or TRI-AD. Among its other projects is a smart community dubbed Woven City. Announced in 2020 as a real-world test lab for future mobility and urban connectivity, the company broke ground on its 170-acre site in the foothills of Mount Fuji in February.