Toyota

Plano-Based Toyota Invests in EV Charging Network IONNA to Access 30K Fast-Charging Ports by 2030

by | Jul 10, 2024
IONNA is a joint venture founded by eight of the world's largest automakers, including BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and now Toyota as well. The company said that by 2030, it aims to offer 30 battery-electric EV models across its Toyota and Lexus brands.
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‘Walk this Way’ Exhibit Tells Stories Through Nearly 200 Years of Women’s Shoes
by | Feb 8, 2024
Opening this Friday, the exhibition at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum offers a pathway to stories centered around "women's labor activism, the fight for suffrage and equal rights, the sexual revolution, and more."
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Next Chapter: University of North Texas President Neal Smatresk Announces Plans to Step Down
by | Feb 6, 2024
Neal Smatresk's decade at UNT sparked big changes and growth, boosting its standing in academics and research. From "record-breaking enrollment" to "making UNT the highest-ranked Tier One institution in the North Texas region," his tenure marks transformation across multiple fronts.
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How Dallas’ o9 Solutions Built a Multi-Billion-Dollar Digital Brain
by | Nov 16, 2023
The nearly quadruple unicorn started with a prescient vision, hit the market at just the right time, and could gallop into the elite ranks of decacorns. But for o9, it's all about the clients. With giants like Walmart, Google, and Samsung, o9 is laser-focused on helping them make better decisions, faster, with its Digital Brain. As o9 Solutions CEO Chakri Gottemukkala says, the $3.7 billion AI-powered enterprise decision platform has hit its stride. Now his sights are set on ambitious 10x growth.
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Toyota Joins Ford & GM in Adopting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard

by | Oct 20, 2023
Plano-based Toyota Motor North America said it will incorporate the NACS ports into certain Toyota and Lexus BEVs starting in 2025, including the all-new, three-row, battery-electric Toyota SUV that will be assembled at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky.
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Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Partners with DFW School Districts on Classroom Programming
by | Aug 18, 2023
The "Upstander Partnerships" with Dallas ISD and Coppell ISD allow the districts to integrate the museum's history-informed civics and citizenship education via a "consistent and engaging" cross-curricular learning plan for grades K-12. The goal: teaching students to be upstanders, not bystanders, when bullying or discrimination occurs.
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From Coachella to Toyota: How Fort Worth’s Social Factor Is Rocking ‘Human Connection’
In the last 18 months, Social Factor has doubled its revenue and grown to 100-plus employees by helping brands turn "digital chaos to human connection."

This year, the team conquered Coachella for a second time, managing live chat for the official YouTube streams of the festival. Here's how it "stands ready to conduct the digital mosh pits" to come.
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How Dallas-Fort Worth Has Become a Hotbed of Artificial Intelligence Technology

by | Feb 16, 2023
"AI now is where the web was in the mid- to late-'90s," Sentiero Ventures' David Evans says. And North Texas is becoming central to the AI revolution, he and other local tech leaders contend. DFW's role as an AI hub has been burnished by its tech workforce, the breadth and diversity of its industries, its thriving startup community, and its wealth of AI-oriented universities and research institutions. Most important of all, though, is the region's status as a magnet for Fortune 500 companies, many of which are eager to partner with AI's local pioneers.

Here's what leading North Texas experts have to say.
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Let’s Talk: Toyota, Google Cloud Expand Next-Gen In-Car Voice AI Systems
by | Oct 11, 2022
Plano-based Toyota North America is expanding its partnership with Google Cloud to enhance AI-based speech services in Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Audio control is now just a voice command away, processed by in-vehicle voice AI. And a future Speech On-Device offering could offer a range of natural speech functions without even using the cloud—eliminating "dead zones" and tunnel dropouts.
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Plano-Based Toyota Partners with the DOE on a $6.5M Megawatt-Scale Fuel Cell Project
by | Aug 24, 2022
Fuel cells for cars? Think bigger—because Toyota sure is. After developing hydrogen fuel cell technology for over 25 years, mostly aimed at carbon-zero vehicles, the company is scaling up the tech for uses far beyond cars. Now it's working with the U.S. government to build a system that can add energy to the grid, power things like data centers, and more.
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The Last Word: Toyota’s Trey Spyropoulos on the SWARM Connected Mobility Hackathon
Over 400 Toyota software and hardware engineers from around the world gathered at the company's Plano campus last month for the SWARM Connected Mobility Hackathon—a 36-hour companywide “concept-to-creation” challenge. And seven UT Dallas students were along for the ride.
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Fast-Growing ‘People Development’ Software Startup Relocates HQ as It Changes the Game in HR and Leadership Development

by | Jun 28, 2022
Leadr has tripled its revenue by focusing on employee engagement and performance as a natural outcome of developing the whole person.

There's "a real tiredness in the industry" around traditional performance management, says co-founder Chris Heaslip. His startup is on the vanguard of change in manager and employee relationships.
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Sherman Picked for New $5B Silicon Wafer Plant, Bringing 1,500 New Jobs to North Texas
by | Jun 27, 2022
Beating out potential sites in Ohio and South Korea, the city of Sherman was selected today by GlobiTech for a new $5 billion, 3.2 million-square-foot silicon wafer facility. The plant could eventually produce more than 1 million silicon wafers monthly when production begins by 2025. It's Sherman's second big manufacturing win in a month. Just weeks ago, Texas Instruments broke ground in the city on new semiconductor wafer fabrication plants with a potential $30 billion investment.
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Toyota industry veterans Bob Carter, Mike Owens, Tracy Doi, and Zack Hicks will retire this summer.
Toyota Makes Multiple Leadership, Structural Changes to Further Its Mobility Transformation as Four Execs Retire
by | Jun 9, 2022
Four industry stalwarts will retire this summer at Plano-based Toyota North America, leaving a legacy of firsts and innovations. In the wake, the company announced structural changes, new roles, and leadership moves to backfill the positions.

Here’s a rundown of the retiring executives—and who will take up their mantles.
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EdTech Steps Up: AT&T Launches The Achievery; Istation Intros Educator Hub; and Toyota Offers STEM Tours of Its Plants
by | Mar 28, 2022
Dallas-based AT&T just launched The Achievery, a free digital learning platform using clips from movies like "Wonder Woman" and "Aquaman" to help teach reading, writing, and language skills—and make virtual learning more engaging. Along with a new educator hub from Dallas-based Istation and STEM education initiatives from Plano-based Toyota, it shows how edtech innovation is streaming out of North Texas.
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