Microsoft joins list of companies participating in the American Center for Mobility

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Microsoft is the latest company to add its name to the list of American Center for Mobility partners, bolstering Michigan’s efforts at automated-vehicle research further with the help of one of the world’s largest tech companies.

Microsoft’s role will be to help design a cloud-based data management and analytics platform. That platform will collect, store and analyze data collected from automated vehicle testing at the center’s Willow Run facility. Its foundation will be Microsoft Azure, a system that offers rapid development and deployment options for new programs.

“This important partnership with Microsoft will provide the American Center for Mobility with the proper digital capabilities to help translate testing data into technology innovations that will make transportation safer for all and fuel further economic growth across the state,” Gov. Rick Snyder said.

The American Center for Mobility just opened this week, and in addition to Microsoft’s involvement, its partners include AT&T, Visteon Corporation, Toyota, Subaru of America Inc., Adient, Ford, and Hyundai America Technical Center Inc.

“Today’s vehicles already have an impressive level of sophistication when it comes to their ability to capture data,” Kevin Dallas, corporate vice president at Microsoft, said. “By applying our global cloud infrastructure, robust security measures and analytics solutions to that data, we can accelerate the work already being done at ACM to make autonomous vehicles safer.”