Toyota is investing $500 million in ride-hailing firm Uber and expand a partnership to develop self-driving cars with Uber.

The firm said this would include the large-scale manufacturing of independent vehicles that would be deployed on Uber’s ride sharing system.

The deal is being seen as a path for the two companies to get up to speed with competitors in the driverless vehicle market.

Regardless of the huge losses Uber had last year, the arrangement additionally values Uber at some $72 billion.

That is up by 15% since its last investment in May but matches a past valuation in February.

Self-driving innovation from each firm will be coordinated into purpose-built Toyota vehicles, as indicated by a press release issued by the two companies.

The pilot preliminaries will be starting in 2021 and the armada of cars will be founded on Toyota’s Sienna Minivan model.

“This agreement and investment mark an important milestone in our transformation to a mobility company as we help provide a path for safe and secure expansion of mobility services like ride-sharing.” said the executive VP of Toyota Motor Corporation, Shigeki Tomoyama.

As firms, both Uber and Toyota are seen as falling behind in creating self-driving vehicles. While, companies like the Alphabet owned Waymo steam ahead.

After a deadly crash in Tempe, Arizona, in March, Uber has downsized its self-driving trials when a self-driving Uber SUV ran over and killed a pedestrian a pedestrian.

From that point forward, the ride-hailing mammoth has removed its self-driving vehicles from the street and shut its Arizona tasks.