Toyota Connected Welcomes VP of Engineering

Former Toyota Connected founding member Dave Tsai rejoins TCNA to engineer the future of mobility

PLANO, Texas, October 4, 2021 – Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) announced that Dave Tsai will rejoin the TCNA team as the Vice President of Engineering. Tsai has a rich history with Toyota Motor North America (TMNA), having joined the company back in 2004 and serving as a founding member of Toyota Connected in 2016. 

Toyota Connected is making bold bets in mobility, safety, and big data to achieve Toyota's goal of transforming from a manufacturing company to a mobility company. In his new role, Tsai leads Toyota Connected teams in engineering, software development, and innovation to bring new services to market for our customers. Tsai aims to grow and empower the Toyota Connected engineering teams in R&D, emerging technologies, and in-market products. In addition, Tsai will focus on elevating talent, building the future of mobility and safety, and creating new experiences for Toyota customers. 

"Within Toyota Connected, our secret sauce is the combination of our engineering teams, our business talent, and our vehicle products and services," said Tsai. "As a founding member of Toyota Connected, our goal was to build a next-generation engineering organization. What energizes me the most is TCNA's potential to have a meaningful impact in this space, and my role within this organization to empower our talented teams to engineer and deliver the future."

With over 20 years of experience in technology, Tsai served in several priority roles supporting Toyota. The first chapter of Tsai's Toyota journey began in 2004, when Tsai served as the Lead Architect supporting dealer services, vehicle diagnostics, and product quality portal applications. In 2012, Tsai then served as a National Manager for Telematics Systems, where he led the architecture, engineering, and delivery for the global Toyota telematics program. In 2016, Tsai helped to launch Toyota Connected as the Director of Technology & Development and Chief Product Owner, leading several large-scale initiatives such as DriveLink and vehicle data and safety platforms. Tsai is rejoining Toyota following a position with Facebook as a group manager in data center data security operations and compliance. 

Tsai has also held critical technical leadership positions at Sapient.publicis and Clairvoyance Capital Advisors.

In his new role, Tsai will report to Brian Kursar, senior vice president and chief technology officer of TCNA, and group vice president and chief technology officer of TMNA. 

About Toyota Connected, Inc.

Based in Plano, Texas, Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) was established in 2016 to drive Toyota’s global efforts for an intelligent mobile society. With big data collected from vehicles and analyzed on a cloud platform, Toyota Connected humanizes the driving experience by providing customers secure, seamless and contextual services, elevating the customer experience while benefitting dealers, distributors, and partners. At the heart of TCNA is Toyota’s belief in human-centered mobility and a fundamental commitment to personal privacy.