At the CES, the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform has been announced. It is a set of services which has been built on the Microsoft Azure cloud, and is designed so as to empower auto manufacturers in order to create custom connected driving experiences.
“This is not an in-car operating system or a “finished product;” it’s a living, agile platform that starts with the cloud as the foundation and aims to address five core scenarios that our partners have told us are key priorities: predictive maintenance, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, customer insights and help building autonomous driving capabilities.”
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Microsoft’s cloud will keep the large volumes of sensors and usage data from connected vehicles, helping the automakers to apply that data in powerful ways.
It is now available as a public preview, and it will bring Microsoft’s intelligence services from across the company right into the car, including virtual assistants, business applications, office services as well as productivity tools, such as Cortana, Dynamics, Office 365, Power BI and Skype for Business.
In Nissan’s CES keynote, the company has announced the partnership as
Renault-Nissan’s Alliance. Nissan has also demonstrated the way in which Cortana will be able to enhance the driver’s experience. Along with this, Azure also offers the flexibility and choice to build common platform for Renault-Nissan, so as to deploy services to both Alliance brands by supporting devices as well as vehicles which will run on multiple systems, programming languages, and tools.
The company states,
“This partnership builds on our recent momentum with other automotive companies, such as our announcement this past week with Volvo to integrate Skype for Business in Volvo’s 90 Series cars, which will enhance productivity and make joining conference calls from the car a cinch. And we’ve partnered with BMW on BMW Connected, the automaker’s personal mobility companion service, to develop a scalable platform based on Microsoft Azure technologies to deliver in-car productivity services through Office 365, as well as intelligent personal assistance for drivers.”
It is really important for you to understand that Microsoft is not building its own connected car; instead, it is actually helping the makers to create connected car solutions.