Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Toyota and AWS Team Up to Enable a Smarter Future for Cars 

Cars are getting smarter, and it’s not just Tesla at the wheel. Vehicles are increasingly connected to the cloud, allowing manufacturers to streamline smarter contextual and internet-driven services. Now, Toyota – the second-largest car manufacturer in the world – has chosen its dance partner for cloud-based vehicle services, and it’s another juggernaut: Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS will support Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (or MSPF), which Toyota describes as “an ecosystem to help Toyota engineers develop, deploy, and manage the next generation of data-driven mobility services for driver and passenger safety, security, comfort, and convenience in Toyota’s cloud-connected vehicles.” Enabled by AWS, Toyota’s MSPF will support functionality ranging from vehicle design and development to contextual user services such as car and ride sharing, leasing, vehicle maintenance management and driving behavior-based insurance rates. 

“Connectivity drives all of the processes of development, production, sales and service in the automotive business,” 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 [connected, autonomous/automated, shared and electric] activities within Toyota.”

The Toyota-AWS collaboration goes beyond its vehicles: AWS services will be used to support data services throughout the entire company.

“The collaboration is a key move, which takes Toyota closer towards its aspiration of transitioning into a ‘mobility company’ and forms part of its connected vehicle strategy announced in late-2016," commented Animesh Kumar, director of automotive consulting at GlobalData. "The move will accelerate the development of services under its [MSPF], which targets development of data-driven mobility services."

“Amazon’s existing presence in the automotive sector and broad capabilities including AI/ML, IoT, HPC, and data analytics will offer scalability to Toyota’s existing mobility solutions," Kumar continued. "Toyota has actively tried to increase its presence in shared mobility business by partnering with global & regional mobility players such as Uber and Grab. The data gathered and analysis will also be applied to enhance vehicle design, development and maintenance. The partnership is win-win for both the parties."

Toyota’s expanded collaboration with AWS comes hot on the heels of Nissan’s partnership with Oracle Cloud for high-performance computing, which was announced just last week. Nissan’s Oracle partnership, however, is more directly targeted at vehicle design considerations, aiming to improve fuel efficiency, reliability and safety in its vehicles. 

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