Toyota advances humanoid robot strategy, plans to deploy 400,000 robots

Toyota is advancing its humanoid robot strategy, planning to deploy 400,000 robots, backed by $6.4 billion in annual investment for factory automation. Walden Robotics, spun off from Toyota's AI robotics business, has completed a $300 million funding round at a post-money valuation of $1.1 billion, and its general-purpose robots are already deployed at Toyota's North American factories. A foundation model developed by Toyota Research Institute can convert high-level instructions into real-time physical actions and motor control; it has been used in Boston Dynamics' Atlas, and Eley, Toyota's self-developed 50-kilogram-class humanoid robot, will also run on this model.