Toyota has launched Toyota Connected, aimed at developing the company’s capabilities in data management and data services. The new company will serve as a data science hub for Toyota’s global operations and support a broad range of consumer, business and government facing initiatives. The move comes as Toyota expands its existing partnership with Microsoft to develop new connected services.
Based in Plano, Texas, Toyota Connected will launch with two mandates: delivering seamless and contextual services, and using cutting-edge data analytics to support product development for customers, dealers, distributors, and partners. At the new facility, Microsoft engineers will work with Toyota Connected, leveraging a broad range of data analytics and mobile programmes. Toyota Connected will adopt Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, employing a hybrid solution globally.
The new company will be led by Toyota Motor Corporation senior managing officer Shigeki Tomoyama, with Toyota Motor North America chief information officer Zack Hicks serving as CEO.
Reuters reported that Microsoft will have a 5 percent stake in Toyota Connected. Among the services to be developed or expanded under Toyota Connected are insurance coverage and rates based on owners' actual driving patterns, connected vehicle networks that can share information on traffic and weather conditions, such as icy roads, and information services tailored to a driver's habits and preferences, including monitoring heart rate, glucose level and other personal health data.