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Masayoshi Son (L), Chairman and CEO of SoftBank, shakes hands with Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda during a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 4, 2018. Toyota Motor Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. on Thursday announced they will set up a joint venture developing self-driving cars and ride-sharing services, with the new mobility firm to be launched next year. (Xinhua/Hua Yi)

TOKYO, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Toyota Motor Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. on Thursday announced they will set up a joint venture developing self-driving cars and ride-sharing services, with the new mobility firm to be launched next year.

Toyota and SoftBank already share a connection through Uber Technologies Inc., with SoftBank being the U.S. firm's largest shareholder and Toyota working with the company in developing vehicles with autonomous driving features.

The new joint venture comes at a time of intensifying global competition to commercialize driverless cars, with IT heavyweights such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. having already launched initiatives in this direction.