Renault-Nissan Alliance has inked a global, multi-year agreement with Microsoft Corp to partner on next-generation technologies to advance connected driving experiences worldwide.
As part of the pact, the companies will work together to develop next-generation connected services for cars powered by Microsoft Azure -- one of the company's cloud offerings, Renault-Nissan Alliance said in a statement.
The new services will improve customer experience via advanced navigation, predictive maintenance and vehicle centric services, remote monitoring of car features, external mobile experiences and over-the-air updates.
"A car is becoming increasingly connected, intelligent and personal. 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," Renault-Nissan Alliance Senior Vice-President Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services Ogi Redzic said in a statement.
The company aims to become the provider of connected mobility for everyone with one single global platform, he added.
The alliance is pioneering autonomous driving and connectivity features on mainstream, mass-market vehicles at affordable prices.
It aims to develop connectivity technologies and features to support the launch of more than 10 vehicles with autonomous driving technology by 2020 with services to maximise better use of newly found in-car free time.
Microsoft Azure provides a proven, secure global cloud platform with unlimited scale that allows Renault-Nissan to deliver services worldwide to its broad customer base.
"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, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations, Microsoft.
The partnership will accelerate development of infotainment and location-based services that will allow customers to personalise and protect their settings, give access to over-the-air updates, monitor the car from a distance among other features.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance is a strategic partnership between Paris-based Renault and Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan, which together sell one in 10 cars worldwide.
The companies, which have been strategic partners since 1999, sold 8.5 million cars in nearly 200 countries in 2015.
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