NTT and auto giant Toyota have struck a deal to develop smart city technologies and to also jointly invest in each other.

They two companies will invest a total of 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in each other, with Toyota to take a 2.07% stake in the telco and NTT to acquire 0.9% of the automaker.

NTT said in a statement Tuesday the two would commit to a "long-term and continuous cooperative relationship" to commercialize smart city businesses and to develop a smart city platform.

NTT said the partners aim to jointly solve problems and create new value by improving the efficiency and sophistication of smart city functions.

The two companies have been collaborating in the connected car field since 2017. (See Eurobites: Ericsson & Friends Form Automotive Edge Computing Consortium.)

In January Toyota announced plans for Woven City, a 175-acre urban future project at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Only fully autonomous, zero-emission vehicles will be allowed on the roads of the city, whose population of around 2,000 residents will have in-home robotics to assist their daily lives, Kyodo news agency reports.

NTT is already running projects in Malaysia's Cyberjaya and Las Vegas that use big data, sensors and high definition cameras to manage vehicle traffic and congestion.

It also planning a smart city scheme in Tokyo's Shinagawa area.

— Robert Clark, contributing editor, special to Light Reading