Taking on Waymo: Toyota adds $2.8 bn to software push for self-driving cars

Toyota had already allocated $1 billion to start a free-standing unit called Toyota Research Institute in 2015

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to spend $2.8 billion to make sure its system for writing the software for self-driving cars will be just as efficient as the factories that build them.

The company needs faster and more reliable methods for writing software because self-driving cars require “millions and millions’’ of lines of computer code, according to James Kuffner, who’ll lead the new effort. That compares with tens of thousands of lines of code in cars just a generation ago.

The Japanese automaker is seeking an edge over rival car giants as well as newcomers such as Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo as