Toyota announced Friday that they will be investing $1 billion into a venture dedicated to artificial intelligence and robotics. Part of the research includes finding innovative ways to include the technology into Toyota vehicles and other everyday products.

ABC News reports that Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, says that Toyota Research Institute will open in January 2016, in Silicon Valley. A second location is expected to open in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The key goals for the venture revolve around self-driving vehicles and accident prevention. Toyota also hopes to explore the use of artificial intelligence technology in creating functional robotic assistance.

An analyst for Kelley Blue Book called the investment a vital move in the growing competition between Apple, Google, Uber, and others to be the first to produce a self-driving car. In the past few years the relations between the high-tech industries and the automotive industry have grown closer. The majority of automobile companies have some sort of presence in Silicon Valley, according to the analyst.

In a statement issued by Toyota, the automobile maker said the goal of their investment was to create “a sustainable future,” in hopes of a “…safer, freer, and unconstrained life.”

Toyota additionally said that as technology improves, the ability to make better products improves as well. The automaker said that it considers it “our responsibility to make life better for our customers, and society as a whole.”