Toyota, Microsoft to Unveil Internet-Connected Vehicles

FREMONT, CA: Toyota and Microsoft are teaming up to develop new internet-connected vehicle services for owners and dealers. Toyota announces that it will bring out a new company ‘Toyota Connected’ in collaboration with Microsoft.

The new company will consolidate its existing connectivity services and serve as the Toyota’s "data science" hub. It will help making lives easier by providing continuous support across technology areas and using a range of data analytics and mobile program to service connected cars.

Artificial intelligence software will be added to cars so that they recognize well-travelled routes by drivers, the steering wheel could monitor a driver’s heartbeat and respiration while the seat turns into a scale, offering continuous health monitoring. The car’s system might connect with other cars to learn that there’s trafficahead, suggest locations along the route for obtaining fuel and food; and even remind drivers to pick up groceries and other supplies if those vendors are located on the same route. In the latter case, the car would need to be connected to the kitchen refrigerator by a cloud app.

The new wireless services will use Microsoft's cloud-based Azure platform to develop these predictive and contextual services. This will allow Toyota Connected to streamline company initiatives across in-car services and telematics, home/IoT connectivity, personalization, safety, smart city integration.

Toyota Connected will have two mandates: developing IoT-related services and using data analytics to support product development for customers, dealers, distributors and partners. The new organization will provide support for Toyota's ongoing research in robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as development of self-driving cars.

"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," says Zack Hicks, CEO of Toyota Connected and CIO at Toyota Motor North America. "From telematics services that learn from your habits and preferences, to use-based insurance pricing models that respond to actual driving patterns, to connected vehicle networks that can share road condition and traffic information, our goal is to deliver services that make lives easier."