Microsoft, Toyota to build car telematics service

06.04.2011
Microsoft and Toyota plan to use Windows Azure, the software giant's cloud offering, to build a telematics service that will initially serve people who have the car maker's electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

The companies said they will together invest US$12 million in Toyota Media Service Co., a Toyota subsidiary that offers digital information services to Toyota customers. The goal is to build a global cloud platform by 2015 "that will provide affordable and advanced telematics services to Toyota automotive customers around the world," they said.

Telematics technology combines communications technology, like mobile networks, with other information technology like GPS and energy management systems.

During a press conference to discuss the deal, executives from the companies described examples of applications that could become available based on the new system. Applications could link cars, homes, the electricity grid and people to let users monitor the number of miles to the next charging station, use a smartphone to check battery power and instruct the car to charge at the time of day when energy is least expensive.

Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., described a scenario where he might use speech technology to tell his car his daily schedule. The car would then give him the best route to his meetings based on traffic and weather conditions. While in the car, he could tell the system to turn on the air conditioning in his house before he returns home. He could control home lighting, heating and appliances too.

The applications that do this will become available to buyers of forthcoming electric and plug-in hybrid cars from Toyota and will initially serve customers in the U.S. and Japan because those are the countries that will get the cars first. "There is the potential of us being able to offer them not just through these vehicles but in others," Toyoda said.