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Picture yourself driving. Now, picture your car carrying on a conversation with you while you do, suggesting a coffee break or re-scheduling your meeting if you get stuck in traffic. Your car could also give information on what to buy and where to shop, based on your profile, as you drive past a marketplace. This is what Tata Motors and Microsoft India’s collaboration hopes to being you within a few years with their connected-car philosophy.
On Thursday, the two companies announced a strategic agreement that will help the auto-maker leverage Microsoft’s connected vehicle technology to bring artificial intelligence, advanced machine learning, Internet of Things, and cloud service to car drivers. The first vehicle showcasing these capabilities will be unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show on March 7.
While the technology will first be used in Tata Motors’ new vertical TAMO – an open platform to develop vehicles through a start-up ecosystem within the manufacturing behemoth - it will later be absorbed into the wider Tata Motors stable, Guenter Butschek, CEO and MD of Tata Motors, said at a press conference here.
There is not clear indication yet of when that will be, however, “We are using Microsoft’s connected vehicle technologies on Azure intelligent cloud to bring the digital lives of our customers in the the cars they drive,” Butschek said.
Among the services that this collaboration will bring to drivers are proactive shopping and route assist recommendations on the go and pre-emptive service alerts.
Last September, the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Microsoft Corp signed a global, multi-year agreement to partner on next-generation technologies to advance connected driving experiences worldwide. The agreement would work on improving customer experience via advanced navigation, predictive maintenance and vehicle centric services, remote monitoring of car features, external mobile experiences and over-the-air updates. However, Microsoft’s solutions for Tata Motors will be customised for the Indian driving experience, Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India said at the press conference.
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