Toyota Motor Corp. has invested $500 million into Uber Technologies Inc. as part of a broader deal that will see the two companies work together on autonomous vehicle technology.

The round, somewhat of a surprise given that Uber has already raised $21.7 billion to date, carries a $72 billion valuation, according to The Wall Street Journal Monday. The figure is a big premium on the $48 billion valuation conferred when SoftBank Group Corp. acquired Uber shares for in December but close to Uber’s previous valuation of $68.5 billion.

On the strategic side, Toyota and Uber will “expand their collaboration with the aim of advancing and bringing to market autonomous ride-sharing as a mobility service at scale.” The deal will see technology from both companies integrated into purpose-built Toyota vehicles that will be used on Uber’s ride-sharing network.

The vehicles, dubbed “Autono-MaaS,” short for autonomous mobility as a service, will be based on Toyota’s Sienna Minivan platform and will use Uber’s Autonomous Driving System and the Toyota Guardian automated safety support system.

“Uber’s automated driving system and Toyota’s Guardian system will independently monitor the vehicle environment and real-time situation, enhancing overall vehicle safety for both the automated driver and the vehicle,” Gill Pratt, Toyota Research Institute’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The use of Toyota’s safety system seems fitting given Uber’s dubious safety record with self-driving cars including a vehicle that ran over and killed a pedestrian in March.

Uber isn’t putting all of its eggs in one basket. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi (pictured, left) told The Financial Times that the company is planning a shift in emphasis from cars to electric bicycles and scooters for shorter journeys as part of its long-term strategy.

Khosrowshahi is quoted as saying that more individual modes of transport were better suited to inner-city travel, despite snatching revenues away from Uber’s drivers and Uber’s bottom line.

Uber is expected to go public in 2019, but its financials have never been solid. In the first quarter, Uber reported its first-ever profit thanks to the sale of its Russian and Southeast Asian businesses before returning to form in the second quarter with an $891 million loss.

Khosrowshahi’s intention to double down on nonvehicle transport might be considered courageous. But at the same time, the company may have little choice, since both bike and electric scooter sharing is currently in vogue. Lyft Inc. as well as a raft of highly funded Chinese startups are all competing in the market.

Photo: Uber