Loving this news!!! Huge start as to what’s to come about for them!
Volkswagen Connects With Microsoft for Auto Cloud
Source: Dow Jones News
By William Boston
BERLIN -- In the latest push by a major auto maker into the new business of providing digital services, Volkswagen AG, the world's biggest auto maker by sales, on Friday unveiled plans to put its entire connected car services on Microsoft Corp.'s Azure cloud platform.
The move is Volkswagen's biggest drive yet into connecting its entire fleet of vehicles to the internet to pave the way for a vast array of digital in-car services that auto manufacturers hope will generate huge revenues and profits in the coming years.
The deal is also a major win for Microsoft, which is in the throes of remaking itself from a legacy software provider into a global force in cloud computing, where it remains a distant No. 2 behind Amazon.com Inc.
The contract between Volkswagen and Microsoft is valid for five years with an option to extend. Volkswagen gave no financial details of the deal.
Volkswagen will invest a low three-digit-million euro sum in the project that will include joint development between the two companies of a development center near Microsoft's headquarters in Washington.
Microsoft will also provide engineers and Volkswagen will move some people from Germany to the new center, with staffing eventually rising to about 300 people.
From 2020, Volkswagen expects one million new vehicles a year to be connected to its cloud, making them capable of providing an array of services. The rollout will begin with the launch of Volkswagen's new generation of electric cars, beginning with the ID Neo full battery compact car, and be successively rolled out to additional vehicles as they are launched.
Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 28, 2018 08:26 ET (12:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
