Toyota has announced the launch of Toyota Connected, Inc. an entity created to significantly expand the company’s capabilities in the fields of data management and data services development. The new company will serve as a data science hub for Toyota’s global operations and will support a broad range of initiatives.  
 
Toyota Connected will leverage the power of data science through Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology to develop predictive, contextual, and intuitive services that help to humanize the driving experience while pushing the technology into the background.
 
“Toyota Connected will help free our customers from the tyranny of technology. It will make lives easier and help us to return to our humanity,” said Zack Hicks, Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Connected and Chief Information Officer at Toyota Motor North America.  “From telematics services that learn from your habits and preferences, to use-based insurance pricing models that respond to actual driving patterns, to connected vehicle networks that can share road condition and traffic information, our goal is to deliver services that make lives easier.”
 
The Toyota Connected structure will build on the Toyota Motor Corporation’s global re-organization into product-based companies, and will focus on expanding Toyota’s work in connected and data science technologies. Toyota Motor Corporation Senior Managing Officer Shigeki Tomoyama will be Chairman, with Toyota Motor North America Chief Information Officer Zack Hicks serving as Chief Executive Officer.
 
Toyota Connected is already providing a range of data and computer science services across Toyota’s operations, including support for ongoing research into artificial intelligence and robotics and the Toyota Research Institute.
 
Toyota Connected will operate in full support of Federal Trade Commission’s Privacy Principles for Vehicle Technologies and Services.