BMW and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) are working together on the former’s connected car initiative.
The agreement between the two makes IBM’s Bluemix with BMW’s CarData platform. The CarData platform makes it so that cars owners can share data about their car with third parties. This includes repair shops and and other service providers.
The idea behind BMW’s CarData is that it will allow customers and service providers to interact in different ways. The platform will also allow users to control who they share information about their vehicle with.
IBM says that by partnering with BMW, the CarData platform will gain access to Watson IoT. The company says that Watson IoT will be able to use its cognitive and data analytics services to develop new ways for customers to share and use information about their vehicles.
Adding IBM Watson IoT to BMW’s CarData platform also has other benefits. This includes having it act as a neutral server for extended vehicle access. This means that it will not only be able to collect and store information about BMW vehicles, but also those from other car manufacturers.
“The concept of a neutral server fosters innovation by establishing a single point of contact for multiple parties to access vehicle data from various manufacturers, thereby reducing integration cost whilst ensuring fair competition,” Dirk Wollschlaeger, General Manager for IBM’s Global Automotive, Aerospace and Defense business, said in a statement.
IBM says that it is expecting the first use cases and client services for the platform to launch by the fall this year.
IBM stock was largely unaffected by the BMW partnership news.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
