Microsoft's connected car platform will put Cortana on the road

Microsoft's next big push into the automotive space won't be a Redmond-made self-driving car. Instead, the company hopes to provide the backbone for a whole suite of cloud-based services that automakers can use to enhance the driving experience in their own connected vehicles. In an announcement at CES on Friday, the company unveiled the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform to handle everything from predictive maintenance to "in-car productivity" and advanced navigation. "This is not an in-car operating system or a'finished product;'" Microsoft's EVP for Business Development Peggy Johnson wrote in the announcement. "It's a living, agile platform that starts with the cloud as the foundation."