Could Toyota and Microsoft succeed in making cars more intelligent? Toyota announced their collaboration with Microsoft to make connected cars in a whole new division of the company.
The “Toyota Connected” project estimated to take up $5.5 million of investment capital intends to build products on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. Toyota will also incorporate much of its existing R&D for smart automobiles. “Toyota Connected” venture will be headed by Toyota vice president Zach Hicks.
Microsoft’s praises of the benefits of the Azure Cloud computing platform at the company’s annual Build Developers Conference in San Francisco just last week seem to be paying off. Concerns with connected devices still center much around privacy as these devices rely alot on location and tap into one’s private data on cloud but Toyota maintains that it’s connected program will maintain the company’s Privacy policy.
What will these cars look like?
Connected cars will boost in-car services and telematics, smart home and IoT connectivity, data services for Toyota affiliates and dealers and smart city integration.
“Toyota Connected will help free our customers from the tyranny of technology. It will make lives easier and help us to return to our humanity,” Hicks said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Toyota’s recent announcement of Prius prime, an update of the Prius plug-in hybrid that includes a multitude of software and entertainment add-ons. The Prime’s radio enables predictive traffic and can also display Doppler weather radar on the in-dash display.
Via [PC Mag]
