Toyota Connected North America has been around for eight years, and has made headway in transforming Toyota through bringing telematics services and many elements of the multimedia experience in-house.
In the summer of 2019, Toyota Connected launched Drivelink to maintain the customer-to-automaker services such as Automatic Collision Notification, Emergency Assistance (via a vehicle’s “SOS” button), Stolen Vehicle Locator, Roadside Assistance, and Hands-Free Destination Assist, among other features.
In many cases, Toyota Connected is Toyota’s first stop for anonymized macro trends – Big Data – before those trends can be turned into technology. It’s no secret that data informs how cars operate and will more so in the future as they become more and more automated. For instance, a vehicle with a navigation system can see when a road turns using cellular and GPS signals.
Cars are connected with sensors that better help engineers determine what customers actually use. They’re electrified. The driver-assist functions can tackle some functions of highway driving with less cognitive load on the driver. It’s all fundamentally changing how we use cars.
There’s something brilliantly radical to Toyota’s SWARM Hackathon.
Sachin Ahire sums up 2021 with optimism for the year ahead
