Toyota Announces New Company Devoted to Self-Driving Cars

TOKYO—Toyota Motor Corp. said it would spend nearly $3 billion to build software for autonomous cars, the latest sign that Japan’s biggest car maker is pushing to get the cars into the hands of consumers.

Toyota, Denso Corp. and Aisin Seiki Co. will create a new Tokyo-based company, called Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, and they said they would invest ¥300 billion ($2.8 billion) in it. The company will start with around 300 employees and aim to grow to around 1,000.