Toyota Connected is expanding its footprint at Plano’s Legacy West development.
The smart car tech startup, launched by Toyota Motor North America last year, recently announced it’s adding 13,500 square feet to its already 20,000-square-foot office. It also will hire 100 more people than originally planned, bringing its total of new employees to 200, according to D CEO‘s Danielle Abril.
“The amount of interest and demand in leveraging our big data to create new products and services has been incredible,” said Zack Hicks, Toyota Connected CEO and Toyota Motor North America chief information officer, in a release. “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.”
Hicks told The Dallas Morning News that he hopes the location in Legacy West Urban Village will attract young and skilled workers to the company.
“We’re hiring data scientists, so we’re obviously doing a lot of hiring out of [the University of Texas at Austin], and bringing in a lot of these younger folks,” Hicks said. “There’s apartments and condos here … I think that’s appealing to them.”
The startup is working on a cloud-based digital ecosystem for ride sharing, car sharing, and remote delivery. It’s also helping the Toyota Research Institute in its research efforts in robotics and artificial intelligence, according to D CEO.
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