Toyota Industries Corporation announces a strategic investment in Gideon for new vision based automated vehicle solutions

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Sep 05, 2024, 09:00 ET

ZAGREB, Croatia, Sept. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO), including Toyota Material Handling Group and Toyota Automated Logistics Group, the market leading provider of material handling solutions, and Gideon, have signed an investment agreement with immediate effect.

The technology company Gideon develops and offers leading technologies for Autonomous Mobile Robotics (AMR) behavior and application stack for automating specific processes in warehouse and manufacturing environments.

Toyota Industries Corporation invests in Gideon

For TICO, this strategic partnership and investment creates possibilities to simplify automated vehicle systems through standardization, reduced deployment times and increasing flexibility, adaptability and scalability. TICO's global autonomous vehicle software house, T-Hive, will have a leading role in applying and leveraging Gideon's technology within specific areas of TICO's global automated vehicle portfolio.

Gideon's modern software architecture and artificial intelligence algorithms will further strengthen TICO's capabilities in the automation of vehicles. Trailer unloading and loading, as well as collaborative case picking for retail order fulfillment, are examples of specific applications that Gideon currently offers to its customers.

For Gideon, the investment allows the company to benefit from Toyota's world leading manufacturing expertise, broad market access and global service network.

Gideon CEO Josip Ćesić:

"Toyota's long-standing legacy as a pioneer in lean manufacturing practices, driven by a relentless commitment to quality, innovation, and sustainability, underpins their expertise with both manual and automated material handling equipment. Their unparalleled manufacturing capacity, coupled with a robust global sales and service network, combined with Gideon's cutting-edge autonomy and application technology, creates a groundbreaking value proposition for the warehouse and manufacturing automation sector."

Toyota Industries Corporation Senior Executive Officer Norio Wakabayashi:

"Gideon has developed impressive vision modules enabling flexible, intelligent autonomous behavior and user and deployment friendliness that will provide added value for our customers in the coming years. TICO already holds a strong position in automated vehicles, but this strategic investment underlines our commitment to delivering market leading mobile automation."

About Gideon: With entities in North America and Croatia, EU, the robotics and AI solutions company specializes in automating material handling processes for logistics, manufacturing, and retail businesses. Its autonomous mobile robots are powered by proprietary spatial AI and 3D vision technology, enabling businesses to automate the most complex warehouse and manufacturing operations and orchestrate workflows of humans, robots, and other equipment supported by real-time data. www.gideon.ai

About Toyota: Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO) is the global leader in materials handling equipment, and part of the Toyota Group.

Toyota Material Handling Group (TMHG) offers a comprehensive portfolio of Toyota counterbalanced forklift trucks and warehouse trucks, storage equipment, automation, and product solutions, supported by services and added value solutions, including service, commercial finance, and telematic information services. Brands include Toyota, Raymond, BT, Cesab and Tailift offered throughout Asia, Europe, the Americas, Middle East, Africa and Oceania.

Toyota Automated Logistics Group (TALG) consists of Bastian Solutions, Toyota L&F, Vanderlande and viastore. TALG is a global partner for integrated logistic process automation, with its group companies collaborating under the guiding principle: for every challenge, a reliable solution.

T-Hive is TICO's internal global software house for automated vehicle solutions. T-Hive provides seamless control systems for all autonomous vehicles provided by TMHG and TALG.

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SOURCE Gideon