At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life. We’re developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, we’ve built a world-class team in Automated Driving, Energy & Materials, Human-Centered AI, Human Interactive Driving, Large Behavioral Models, and Robotics.
This is a Summer 2026 paid 12-week internship opportunity. Please note that this internship will be a hybrid in-office role. Our driving simulator is physically located there and the intern is expected to test and deploy software on the platform, as well as collaborate with other researchers.
The Team
The Human Interactive Driving (HID) Research group is focused on designing the future of advanced safety systems, pushing the envelope of safety, driver experience, and automation. Our team consists of cognitive scientists, computer scientists, software engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers, vehicle dynamics experts, designers, and more. We leverage multiple simulation and physical platforms to explore novel interfaces, algorithms, and safety technologies.
Our group is developing next-generation training and assessment tools for performance driving and beyond. We are looking into expanding our driving simulation technology by generating novel driving courses, including layout and other features, based on individual drivers’ skill levels, past performance, and long-horizon strategy development. These tracks may also be used to train autonomous and shared autonomy artificial agents
The Internship
We are looking for a 2026 summer research intern in our Los Altos HQ to work on this effort, with an aim of approaching this as a research challenge for combining generative AI and human-factors research. This intern will be expected to work hands-on with a physical simulation system, create working code prototypes, interact frequently with team members, transfer code, design validation experiments, and participate in writing a paper describing the findings, as well as publishing the work.