Road trip! Cortana to be part of Microsoft's Connected Vehicle Platform

Microsoft is planning on including Cortana in a cloud-based connected car platform that will allow car manufacturers to offer custom driving experiences. Microsoft's cloud will take in the necessary information from sensors and spit out information that the auto makers can use to develop tools for drivers.

Among the productivity applications that Microsoft is including in its Connected Vehicle Platform are Cortana, Dynamics, Office 365, Power BI and Skype for Business. Microsoft says that with Cortana on board, a person could use the Cortana app on his iOS, Android or Windows handset to schedule a meeting with a colleague at a coffee shop the next morning. Once in the car, the virtual assistant would remind the driver of his appointment, and navigate him to the coffee shop. In another example, let's say that the car determines that there is a service issue that needs to be addressed. Using Cortana, an appointment is scheduled with a service provider who has an opening that fits the driver's schedule.

To differentiate this from Android Auto, Microsoft points out that its Connected Vehicle Platform is not an in-car OS or even a finished product. Microsoft spoke with its customers and found out that they had five priorities that they wanted to accomplish. These include predictive maintenance, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, customer insights and help building autonomous driving capabilities. With the platform, the automakers should be able to touch every one of these issues.

The platform will be available as a public preview sometime later this year. Meanwhile, you can click on the video at the top of the story to see how the platform helps drivers enjoy an enhanced experience behind the wheel.

source: Microsoft via Engadget