Nissan hiring 300 to develop common connected car technology

YOKOHAMA – The top executive overseeing connected vehicles at Nissan and Renault believes the benefits of developing a common technology for connectivity within the Japanese and French auto partnership outweigh the risks of sustaining huge damage from a possible defect or cyberattack. Ogi Redzic, senior vice president at the Renault-Nissan Alliance, oversees such connected services, including staying connected with family, navigating best routes and remote control of vehicles -- an area where all the world's automakers are trying to gain an edge. Redzic, formerly of Motorola and Nokia, was tapped for the post at the alliance earlier this year. He told reporters Tuesday at Nissan's Yokohama headquarters that the alliance has begun hiring 300 people to build such software applications for future cars, in addition to 300 employees at Nissan Motor Co. and 300 at Renault SA already working on the effort. Nissan-Renault hopes to lead in connected vehicles, in addition to green cars and self-driving cars, the two other increasingly vital auto technologies.