Toyota is looking to develop new technologies to reduce highway injuries and fatalities, and it's ready to shell out some serious cash for the effort.

The Japanese car maker on Friday announced it will be investing approximately $50 million over to the next five years to set up joint research centers at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The goal is to boost the research and development of intelligent vehicle and mobility technologies that could ultimately make the roads safer in the future and improve the lives of those who are unable to drive or move freely. 

"We will initially focus on the acceleration of intelligent vehicle technology, with the immediate goal of helping eliminate traffic casualties and the ultimate goal of helping improve quality of life through enhanced mobility and robotics," Toyota's Senior Managing Officer Kiyotaka Ise said in a statement.

Toyota has tapped Gill Pratt, former Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and leader of its recent Robotics Challenge, to direct the effort.

"This bold collaboration will address extremely complex mobility challenges using ground breaking artificial intelligence research," Pratt said in a statement. "I'm thrilled to be a part of the synergies and talent-sharing of Toyota, MIT, and Stanford."

The researchers aim to develop intelligent vehicle technologies that can better "recognize objects around the vehicle in diverse environments, provide elevated judgment of surrounding conditions, and safely collaborate with vehicle occupants, other vehicles, and pedestrians," Pratt added.

Electrical engineering and computer science Professor Daniela Rus will lead research at MIT while Fei-Fei Li, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, will head up the effort there.

"Our team will work to help intelligent vehicles recognize objects in the road, predict behaviors of things and people, and make safe and smart driving decisions under diverse conditions," Li said.