SAN ANTONIO — In a room packed with people where the topic of the day was 20 years of success, it was a bright yellow robot dog named Spot that delighted the crowd the most.
Spot uses cameras, computer vision models and sensors to conduct inspections, thermal imaging and collect values for machine health.
The robot bounded up the steps to take the stage with laughter and applause as Toyota Texas marked a major milestone of achievement.
The south side automaker broke ground at 1 Lone Star Pass in October 2003 and since that time, by the numbers, they have logged significant achievements.
On the 2,000 acre campus they've made a significant investment in their physical plant.
County Judge Peter Sakai told the crowd, "Your $4.2 billion dollar investment has been a huge boon to the growth of Bexar County."
Company leaders said they have grown their workforce from 1,200 to almost 5,000 if you count everyone who works for a related supplier.
More than 3 million trucks and SUVs have rolled off the assembly line and they said their charitable contributions to local nonprofits total more than $50 million.
The tradition continued Wednesday, with the announcement of new donations.
Both the 100 Club of San Antonio, which supports local law enforcement and firefighters, and the Texas A&M San Antonio Institute for School & Community Partnerships received $50,000.
Kevin Voelkel, a company Vice President, said "This was pastureland. It was 2,700 acres of ranchland and we gave back 700 acres of this to the city of San Antonio for Parks and Recreation."
Voelkel said watching the transformation has been an amazing journey.
"Now this 2,000 acres of what was ranch land is a booming, thriving metropolis of businesses where you see neighborhoods that are going in where there was nothing but scrub brush that are now high-end homes," Voelkel said.
Giving back to the community by supporting area schools is a smart business decision, Voelkel said.
"We really support six independent school districts. We call that our backyard strategy. That's 58,000 kids. Over 70% of our employees have children who work and live in those school districts that go to school there," Voelkel said.
Toyota does offer plant tours, that can be booked at tourtoyota.com