In his latest ecosystem column, Antony Savvas charts a blockbuster first couple months of the year, involving both new companies and well-established ones. Internet of Things (IoT) network provider, Sigfox has launched the second edition of its Hacking House event in Paris. For six months, participants from seven different countries will bring IoT-based projects to life addressing issues as diverse as car theft prevention and bird protection. Microsoft and Amosense are the sponsors of the latest Hacking House, which will also be supported by technology partners such as LITE-ON, Wisebatt and STMicroelectronics. The participants are divided into four teams to develop their project at Sigfox in Paris from this month to early August 2020.

This post was co-authored by the extended Azure Mobility Team. The past year has been eventful for a lot of reasons. At Microsoft, we've expanded our partnerships, including Volkswagen, LG Electronics, Faurecia, TomTom, and more, and taken the wraps off new thinking such as at CES, where we recently demonstrated our approach to in-vehicle compute and software architecture. Looking ahead, areas that were once nominally related now come into sharper focus as the supporting technologies are deployed and the various industry verticals mature. The welcoming of a new year is a good time to pause and take in what is happening in our industry and in related ones with an aim to developing a view on where it's all heading.

This post was co-authored by the extended Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform (MCVP) team. A connected vehicle solution must enable a fleet of potentially millions of vehicles, distributed around the world, to deliver intuitive experiences including infotainment, entertainment, productivity, driver safety, driver assistance. In addition to these services in the vehicle, a connected vehicle solution is critical for fleet solutions like ride and car sharing as well as phone apps that incorporate the context of the user and the journey. Imagine you are driving to your vacation destination and you start your conference call from home while you are packing. When you transition to the shared vehicle, the route planning takes into account the best route for connectivity and easy driving and adjusts the microphone sensitivity during the call in the back seat.

This post was co-authored by the extended Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform (MCVP) team. A connected vehicle solution must enable a fleet of potentially millions of vehicles, distributed around the world, to deliver intuitive experiences including infotainment, entertainment, productivity, driver safety, driver assistance. In addition to these services in the vehicle, a connected vehicle solution is critical for fleet solutions like ride and car sharing as well as phone apps that incorporate the context of the user and the journey. Imagine you are driving to your vacation destination and you start your conference call from home while you are packing. When you transition to the shared vehicle, the route planning takes into account the best route for connectivity and easy driving and adjusts the microphone sensitivity during the call in the back seat.

Buy a new car, and you're really buying a datacenter on wheels. By 2025, 100 percent of new cars will be connected cars, up from 35 percent today. And by 2030, 15 percent of new cars will be autonomous -- and all will send, receive and analyze vast amounts of data. As Microsoft's principal group program manager, Doug Seven is working alongside the automotive industry to transform the everyday experience of driving through the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). Seven shared his insights on the industry's rapid innovation in a keynote address this past week at DesignCon 2017 in Santa Clara, California. If you weren't able to attend the show, Seven's keynote on "The Internet of Things That Move – Connected Cars & Beyond," described how automakers and OEMs can evolve their offerings with advanced technology, from high-speed connectivity to the car, new models of car usage and ownership, and autonomous driving.

Last year the average American spent more than 290 hours behind the wheel of a car – that's roughly equivalent to seven 40-hour weeks – according to a report published by the AAA Foundation. When you expand that globally, the amount of time we spend driving is staggering. That's why automakers like Renault-Nissan, Volvo, BMW and Toyota are embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide new ways to help drivers stay safe, connected and productive during their time on the road. By 2020, 90 percent of new cars will have connectivity capabilities1 and Microsoft is helping the automotive industry drive this transformation. Today at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, we announced the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, an offering built on the powerful Microsoft Azure cloud. It brings Microsoft's intelligent services in virtual assistants, business applications, office services, visual analytics and productivity tools to the car, to reduce driver distractions and help drivers be even more mobile.

At CES 2017, Microsoft announced that it is building a platform to enable automobile manufacturers to deliver connected car experiences to customers. Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform is a set of services that is integrated with Azure, Cortana, Office 365, Power BI, and Skype. In the last couple of years, Microsoft has doubled down its investment in machine learning (ML) and analytics. The company is embedding ML in almost all its products. Powered by Azure, these new set of services such as Azure ML, Microsoft Cognitive Services, Cortana Intelligence Suite takes advantage of the abundant compute and storage resources exposed by the underlying infrastructure.

At CES 2016, Microsoft announced that it is building a platform to enable automobile manufacturers to deliver connected car experiences to customers. Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform is a set of services that is integrated with Azure, Cortana, Office 365, Power BI, and Skype. In the last couple of years, Microsoft has doubled down its investment in machine learning (ML) and analytics. The company is embedding ML in almost all its products. Powered by Azure, these new set of services such as Azure ML, Microsoft Cognitive Services, Cortana Intelligence Suite takes advantage of the abundant compute and storage resources exposed by the underlying infrastructure.

Traditional automakers, many of whom ushered in an era of incredible disruption nearly a century ago, now face disruption themselves from four modern forces -- connected, autonomous, shared and electric cars. The infrastructure and scale required to build a connected car is incredibly complicated, expensive and resource intensive. At its core, it's a software challenge, and a chief obstacle for these brands is integrating the complex cloud technology required to deliver next-generation driving experiences. Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we announced the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, a set of services built on the Microsoft Azure cloud and designed to empower auto manufacturers to create custom connected driving experiences. This is not an in-car operating system or a "finished product;" it's a living, agile platform that starts with the cloud as the foundation and aims to address five core scenarios that our partners have told us are key priorities: predictive maintenance, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, customer insights and help building autonomous driving capabilities.