TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor ( TM ) and Alphabet's Waymo on Wednesday said they have agreed to explore a collaboration on speeding up the development and deployment of autonomous driving technology.

The two companies in a joint statement said they aim to combine respective strengths to develop an autonomous vehicle platform, while also exploring ways to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles (POVs).

They will discuss the possibility of expanding the scope of their collaboration, they said.