Toyota teams up with Amazon Web Services

19 August 2020

Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced they are expanding their global collaboration. The Amazon arm will apply its array of services to the carmaker’s Mobility Services Platform (MSPF).

The MSPF ecosystem helps Toyota engineers develop, deploy, and manage the next generation of data-driven mobility services for customer safety, security, and comfort in cloud-connected vehicles.

Data-driven

′Toyota is leveraging the unmatched breadth and depth of AWS services to transform how it develops and manages new mobility services across its entire ecosystem of connected vehicles around the world,’ said Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS.

′By running on AWS, with its high performance, functionality, and security, Toyota is able to innovate quickly across its enterprise and continue to lead the automotive industry in delivering the quality of experiences that customers expect.’

Toyota’s mobility platform looks to leverage the reliability and scalability of AWS’ global infrastructure. The carmaker plans to develop expertise from the internet giant’s professional services to help process and analyse data from its connected fleet.

The MSPF and its application programming interfaces (API) will allow Toyota to collect information from connected vehicles and utilise it in the design and development of new contextual services such as car-sharing, rideshare and full-service leasing. It will also support new corporate and consumer services like proactive vehicle maintenance notifications and driving behaviour-based insurance.

The collaboration will permeate Toyota’s entire enterprise, building a foundation for streamlined and secure data sharing across the company. It will also allow the carmaker to accelerate its move into connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE) mobility technologies.

′Connectivity drives all of the processes of development, production, sales and service in the automotive business,’ said Shigeki Tomoyama, chief information and security officer and chief production officer at Toyota. ′Expanding our agreement with AWS to strengthen our vehicle data platform will be a major advantage for CASE activities within Toyota.’

Amazon’s advance

Amazon has been advancing at pace into the automotive world, from making its AWS indispensable for data analysis, to investing in startups. In June, the company announced it is acquiring autonomous ride-hailing company Zoox. CEO Aicha Evans and CTO Jesse Levinson will continue to lead the company as a standalone business.

′Zoox is working to imagine, invent, and design a world-class autonomous ride-hailing experience,’ said Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s CEO, worldwide consumer. ′Like Amazon, Zoox is passionate about innovation and about its customers, and we’re excited to help the talented Zoox team to bring their vision to reality in the years ahead.’

In April last year, Ford and Autonomic signed a multi-year global agreement with AWS, to expand its cloud connectivity services. The deal meant Autonomic’s Transportation Mobility Cloud system could be powered by AWS, as well as becoming the standard connected-car solution for Ford vehicles.

′The collaboration with Ford and Autonomic transforms the way automotive customers and partners develop connected-vehicle cloud services,’ said Jassy. ′Autonomic customers will be able to bring mobility services and differentiated customer experiences to their customers worldwide, by integrating TMC with AWS. Such capabilities will help reimagine the future of the automobile industry.’  

These collaborations mean technology startups and carmakers alike can benefit from Amazon’s data analysis know-how. Meanwhile, the internet giant can place its finger in another pie.