Software giant Microsoft is teaming up with Nissan and Renault SA to bring cloud-connected cars to the road — with an estimated ETA of 2018, according to Bloomberg.
The ramifications of “cloud cars” range as far as their benefits. Drivers/users (a new industry amalgam) will be able to monitor their cars, run diagnostics, and peer into the inner-workings of their vehicles better than ever before — all remotely, of course. However, and perhaps more significantly, data-tracking measures embedded in the interface will allow these car manufacturers (and Microsoft) to understand their customers’ interests and habits, giving the companies exploitable marketing targets while raising yet a few more eyebrows in the debate of online privacy.
“Partnering with Microsoft allows us to accelerate the development of the associated key technologies needed to enable scenarios our customers want and build all-new ones they haven’t even imagined,” said Ogi Redzic, Renault-Nissan Alliance senior vice-president. “We aim to become the provider of connected mobility for everyone with one single global platform.”
You don’t have to listen too hard to hear the monopoly game at stake here. With prophecies of the self-driving car on the rise, manufacturers, software companies, and cab services are hot-heeling toward the new frontier of a fully computerized car.
“While the connected car experience is in its infancy, we believe there’s so much potential to dramatically change the industry. We are partnering to accelerate Renault-Nissan’s mobile and cloud strategies and unlock new experiences for their customers,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, executive vice president and president of Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations, in a recent press release.
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Photo by Lindsey Turner on Flickr.
