Toyota Research Institute

Human Interactive Driving Research Intern, Platform Research

Los Altos, CA
R Unreal Unity C++ Python
Description
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 Energy & Materials, Human-Centered AI, Human Interactive Driving, and Robotics.

This is a summer 2025 paid 12-week internship opportunity with the HID team in the Platform Research department at TRI. Please note that this internship will be an in-office role based in Los Altos, CA.

The Team

The Human Interactive Driving 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.

The Internship

The HID 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. We are looking for a summer research intern in HQ to work on this effort, with the aim of approaching this as a research challenge for combining generative AI and human-factors research.

The individual will contribute to one or more high-level research focus areas:

- Procedural track generation using generative AI
- Dynamic content creation for CARLA-based driving simulator
- Driver skill assessment

The 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 and publishing the work.

The ideal individual should be able to distill high-level project goals into an actionable work plan, possess strong skills in generative AI, and have good knowledge of ROS2 and the CARLA driving simulator.

Prior experience in cyber-physical systems, human-subjects research, and data analysis is a plus.

Qualifications

  • Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction, or related fields
  • Experience in generative AI, whether LLMs with non-language tokens or diffusion models
  • Game development experience: Unreal, Unity, Godot, etc. and/or simulation development experience: CARLA, Sumo, Gazebo, AirSim, etc.
  • Strong software engineering skills (C++/Python preferred) and analysis/debugging robotic systems
  • Experience working in a shared codebase with multiple collaborators and reviewing others’ code
  • Strong written and oral communication skills
  • Experience in working in multi-disciplinary teams. You will be working cross-functionally with UX/UI designers, human-factors researchers, and cognitive scientists.
  • Must have a high level of self-initiative to prioritize and manage workload and meet project deadlines in a dynamic environment

Bonus Qualifications

  • Prior experience in ROS / ROS2
  • Previous experience with human subjects or human-centric research
  • Prior experience in scientific Python, R, or similar statistical analysis tools
The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $45 and $65/hour for California-based roles; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Note that TRI offers a generous benefits package including vacation and sick time. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

Please reference this Candidate Privacy Notice to inform you of the categories of personal information that we collect from individuals who inquire about and/or apply to work for Toyota Research Institute, Inc. or its subsidiaries, including Toyota A.I. Ventures GP, L.P., and the purposes for which we use such personal information.

TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds, education and life experiences. We are dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of our culture. We believe diversity makes us stronger and are proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all, without regard to an applicant’s race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state or local laws.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.
Toyota Research Institute
Toyota Research Institute
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Automotive Consumer Research Machine Learning Product Research

0 applies

1 views

Other Jobs from Toyota Research Institute

Staff Front-End Engineer - Robotics

Los Altos, CA Remote Hybrid

Senior Software Engineer

Los Altos, CA Remote Hybrid

Machine Learning Engineer

Cambridge, MA Remote Hybrid

There are more than 50,000 engineering jobs:

Subscribe to membership and unlock all jobs

Engineering Jobs

60,000+ jobs from 4,500+ well-funded companies

Updated Daily

New jobs are added every day as companies post them

Refined Search

Use filters like skill, location, etc to narrow results

Become a member

🥳🥳🥳 401 happy customers and counting...

Overall, over 80% of customers chose to renew their subscriptions after the initial sign-up.

To try it out

For active job seekers

For those who are passive looking

Cancel anytime

Frequently Asked Questions

  • We prioritize job seekers as our customers, unlike bigger job sites, by charging a small fee to provide them with curated access to the best companies and up-to-date jobs. This focus allows us to deliver a more personalized and effective job search experience.
  • We've got about 70,000 jobs from 5,000 vetted companies. No fake or sleazy jobs here!
  • We aggregate jobs from 5,000+ companies' career pages, so you can be sure that you're getting the most up-to-date and relevant jobs.
  • We're the only job board *for* software engineers, *by* software engineers… in case you needed a reminder! We add thousands of new jobs daily and offer powerful search filters just for you. 🛠️
  • Every single hour! We add 2,000-3,000 new jobs daily, so you'll always have fresh opportunities. 🚀
  • Typically, job searches take 3-6 months. EchoJobs helps you spend more time applying and less time hunting. 🎯
  • Check daily! We're always updating with new jobs. Set up job alerts for even quicker access. 📅

What Fellow Engineers Say