By Matt Day, The Seattle Times
Microsoft’s network of data centers will power Toyota’s new venture for connected cars, the software giant’s latest inroads in the realm of next-generation automotive technologies.
Toyota on Monday announced the creation of Toyota Connected, a Plano, Texas, venture designed to be a data science hub. The Japanese automaker says the new unit will be a hub for the company’s efforts to build more intelligent connections between the data generated by Toyota cars and trucks and the company’s customers, dealers and partners, such as insurance companies.
Toyota said Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing network will power the venture, expanding on an existing business relationship.
Microsoft, based outside Seattle, and other technology giants are competing to sell their data storage and analytics services to the auto industry. The field is undergoing a high-tech revolution as automakers put more technology on car dashboards, explore automated driving, and start to make sense of the trove of data already collected by the computers that regulate and monitor things like engine power and braking systems.
Last week, BMW said it would use Microsoft’s Azure as the Internet plumbing for a new smartphone application for car owners. The German automaker also uses cloud-computing services from Amazon.com.
Both Microsoft and Amazon were said to be interested in providing the cloud-computing services for digital map company Here, which is owned by a consortium of automakers.
Toyota said Microsoft bought a 5 percent equity stake in the startup company, the Associated Press reported, but the full price wasn’t disclosed.
©2016 The Seattle Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
