TOKYO (May 22)—Toyota Motor Corp. is negotiating with Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. and Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. to make tires for it using a new manufacturing process the car maker has funded. Toyota does not intend to make tires itself, nor will the company seek to have Toyota-brand tires made for it, according to informal comments Toyota President Fujio Cho made to reporters attending a recent company reception. Toyota has funded development for the past two years of the new process that originally came from Fuji Seiko Co., a maker of tire materials. Cho indicated the new technology involves building the tire in its final, inflated shape by assembling it around a core, before sending it to the curing process. In the traditional method, tires are built flat.