Microsoft and Toyota in Cloud Computing Partnership
Microsoft and Toyota have come together in a joint venture to build in-car services that will run on Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform. The new features should begin to in Toyota’s electric and plug-in hybrid cars in 2012. Toyota intends to offer a full range of cooud servces to all its automobile customers by 2015.
The two companies intend to invest $12 million in Toyota Media Service, which is a subsidiary of the Toyota Motor Company.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, “Today’s announcement of our partnership with TMC [Toyota Motor Co.] is a great example of how we continue to invest in the automotive industry and of our commitment to power the services that are important to consumers. It further validates the power of the cloud, as the Windows Azure platform will provide the enterprise-grade, scalable platform that TMC needs to deliver telematics in its automobiles worldwide.”
Telematics is refers to in-car services such as GM’s On-Car, and Sync, developed by Microsoft for the Ford Motor Company.
In a webcast news conference by the two companies from Redmond earlier today, Ballmer and Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda unfolded some of the services customers could expect from the collaboration. These include:
- Drivers could turn on their home heating and air conditioning from the car while driving home.
- They could use a smartphone to schedule when to charge a plug-in Toyota hybrid car, such as when energy costs are least expensive.
- They could use a smartphone to check the car’s battery level and monitor how many miles they can drive before recharging.
According to Ballmer, since the service runs on the cloud, drivers can control information to and from the car from their computers and smart mobile devices.
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Category: Alliance, Cloud Computing News, Microsoft, Partnership, Resources
