- CNET, Thursday, April 7, 2011 10 AM
Microsoft and Toyota are partnering on a long-term, in-car technology program whose goal is to put information pertaining to vehicles in the cloud. The program would connect vehicles and drivers to
the Web via Microsoft services like Azure. The new technology would allow people to monitor and control their electric and hybrid Toyota vehicles from their homes. The two companies are investing $12
million in a new Toyota subsidiary, Toyota Media Service, with a goal of finishing a cloud-based system by 2015.
Toyota, in a web conference with Microsoft, said the goal is
navigation and diagnostic services like General Motors' OnStar plus owners' ability to do non-vehicle related activities like turning on heaters or air conditioning at their home with voice commands
from their car. "We'll boost the value of today's vehicles by making them information terminals," Toyota President Akio Toyoda.
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