Toyota Embraces Big Data (Science), Spins Off a Company

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Your vehicle’s technology is enslaving you, and Toyota wants to help you break free.

Today, Toyota has become the latest automaker to create a subsidiary tasked with generating new technology and innovation for its parent company.

Called Toyota Connected Inc., the venture is a collaboration with Microsoft that will serve as a data science and mobile technology hob for the world’s largest automaker. The plan is to use Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology to “humanize” the driving experience and make vehicles’ high-tech abilities less intrusive and more useful.

“Toyota Connected will help free our customers from the tyranny of technology. It will make lives easier and help us to return to our humanity,” said Zack Hicks, CEO of Toyota Connected and Chief Information Officer at Toyota Motor North America, in a statement.“From telematics services that learn from your habits and preferences, to use-based insurance pricing models that respond to actual driving patterns, to connected vehicle networks that can share road condition and traffic information, our goal is to deliver services that make lives easier.”

You heard the man — someone needs to stop the tyranny!

All of the automaker’s data projects will be consolidated under one roof in Plano, Texas, where Microsoft engineers will work alongside Toyota employees in research and development teams.

Autonomous technology is an obvious focus for automakers’ in-house brainiacs these days, but Toyota’s unenthusiastic position on self-driving vehicles points to the tech being used (at least initially) to develop safety systems for human-driven cars.

The automaker claims the new venture would conform to Toyota’s core “belief in human-centered mobility and a fundamental commitment to personal privacy.”

Last month, Ford spun off a subsidiary focused on developing mobility services, while General Motors took an outside route to advance its autonomous dreams by buying California startup Cruise Automation.
Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • DeadWeight DeadWeight on Apr 04, 2016

    Toyota Embraces Ugly. That face should be illegal in all 50 states plus all U.S. Territories.

    • Budda-Boom Budda-Boom on Apr 04, 2016

      Not as bad as the current 4-Runner. That looks like someone had their face slashed with a razor blade.

  • Turf3 Turf3 on Apr 04, 2016

    AwRIGHT!! Because we all know Micro$oft products never have any bugs! Yep...

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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