Volkswagen, Microsoft Launch CV Partnership
Volkswagen is teaming up with Microsoft on a cloud computing system for its connected vehicles.
The companies are claiming the ‘Volkswagen Automotive Cloud’, based on Microsoft’s Azure platform, will be “one of the largest dedicated automotive industry clouds”. They are characterizing the move as the next logical step in Volkswagen’s “digital transformation” into a mobility provider, which it hopes to have accomplished by 2025.
Other strands of this plan include making the automaker’s entire fleet “fully connected”, and attempting to entice greater usage of VW cars by non-owners, a strategy titled ‘Volkswagen We’. Volkswagen CEO Dr Herbert Diess said: “Volkswagen, as one of the world’s largest automakers, and Microsoft, with its unique technological expertise, are outstandingly well-matched”.
Under the plan, VW says over 5 million of its new cars will be connected to the IoT via Azure, with the ultimate aim being for this to be the case for all of its brands worldwide. VW claims this will “optimize the interconnection of vehicle, cloud-based platform and customer-centric services for all brands”. To assist collaboration on the project, it is setting up an office near Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington state.
