Toyota to launch new Arene operating system within five years

Beijing time, August 26, according to foreign media reports, on August 25 local time, Toyota's Chief Product Integration Officer Keiji Yamamoto announced in Tokyo the relevant software development plans for future Toyota and Lexus brand models.

Keiji Yamamoto also announced exciting news that Toyota will release a new Arene operating system in the next five years. In addition, starting with the next-generation Lexus NX model released this fall, the software online upgrade (OTA updates) function will cover more Toyota models. It is worth mentioning that the above function has been promoted in Toyota's competitors such as Tesla and Volkswagen.

To date, Lexus and Toyota have produced approximately 10 million connected cars. In fact, the Lexus LS500h flagship model and Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric sedan already support OTA update functions, but the upcoming Lexus NX and other future models will further expand the coverage of OTA updates.

According to Keiji Yamamoto, a modern car is equipped with up to 50 ECUs (electronic controller units) and 1,000 semiconductors. The number of lines of code per car has increased rapidly over the past decade, and this growth rate will accelerate in the future.

According to Toyota's forecast, the number of lines of code will increase from less than 500 at the beginning of the 21st century to nearly 8,000 by 2025.

To achieve the above goals, Toyota currently has about 3,000 employees working on software development in collaboration with Toyota's technical branches Woven Planet and Toyota Connected. If the statistics are expanded to the entire Toyota Group, the number of employees engaged in software-related work has exceeded 18,000.

In his 1.5-hour presentation, Keiji Yamamoto also released Toyota's new operating system called Arene, which is expected to be available in the next five years. The operating system was developed by Woven Planet, a subsidiary of Toyota that focuses on artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. It is worth mentioning that the operating system will also be provided to other companies in the future.

According to Automotive News, Toyota believes Arene OS can rival the automotive versions of Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS. In addition to offering more features and improved efficiency, Arene OS takes less time to develop, so it has a shorter product cycle.

The new Lexus NX will support OTA upgrade function.

The next-generation Lexus NX was unveiled in June this year and is expected to be launched this fall. The car will support OTA upgrades, which can eliminate the time difference between the implementation of new technologies in different regions. Toyota is determined to cover more multimedia and safety-related systems with OTA upgrades. The company believes that car connectivity technology will help achieve "carbon neutrality."