Toyota and Microsoft to Collaborate in Cloud-Based Data Science Unit

Toyota (TM - Get Report) announced Monday a collaboration with Microsoft (MSFT - Get Report) in which the automaker would use Microsoft's Azure cloud-based technology to initiate a "data science hub" for Toyota's global operations in Plano, Texas. Toyota said the business unit, called Toyota Connected and headed by Zack Hicks, the Japanese automaker's chief information officer for North America, "will support a broad range of consumer-, business- and government- facing initiatives." Toyota Connected also will coordinate with the automaker's 1 billion artificial intelligence initiative, announced in early November and headed by Gil Pratt, to work on driverless car and related technologies. In the past year, Toyota's American depositary receipts have fallen about 28% compared to a Dow Jones Industrial Average that's about flat. The latest move in digital technology by a global auto giant is another attempt to adapt rapidly to a shifting strategic landscape and a potential upset of the industry's business model.