New article: Microsoft’s new patent license programming for car manufacturers read more at here http://www.spinonews.com/index.php/technology/item/3077-microsoft-s-new-patent-license-programming-for-car-manufacturers

Microsoft has agreed to license its patents for Internet-connected cars to Toyota, its first such deal with an automaker and a signal that it may be willing to partner with others.

Microsoft's new patent program is a reminder that it too has a vast range of technologies that will be essential for internet-connected vehicles and which are available to manufacturers to license. Unlike Google, Microsoft stresses it doesn't build cars, but wants to partner with car manufacturers.

Connected car innovations that Microsoft lists in its new auto licensing page include Windows, its exFAT file storage system, Wi-Fi and mobile connectivity, sensors, Kinect for gesture computing, its Cortana voice-recognition system, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

Microsoft also boasts that since 1995 it's worked with Ford, BMW, Tesla, and Nissan to spur the development of connected cars. All these technologies would help anticipate when cars need maintenance, connect drivers to roadside assistance, and power tomorrow's infotainment systems.

Microsoft's executive vice president of business development, Peggy Johnson, said the connected car market is huge for the auto industry, and that software is the key to achieving it.

Analyst firm Gartner forecasts there will be 250 million connected cars on the road by 2020, which will need technologies for telematics, automated driving, infotainment, and mobility services. It expects connected car production to increase from 21 million per year in 2017, to 61 million per year by 2020.

 

As for Toyota, the licensing arrangement builds on a recent partnership with Microsoft to run Toyota's Connected Car data-science initiative on the Azure cloud platform.