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PR03297 15 July 2004
Fiat Auto and Microsoft Team Up For a Long-Term Strategic Automotive Partnership
London - UK - 15 July 2004 - Fiat Auto and Microsofts Automotive Business Unit join forces for a long-term strategic automotive partnership developing innovative telematics solutions for motorists. Fiat Auto and Microsofts novel approach of designing in-vehicle telematics systems combines Fiat Autos experience and research in telematics services as well as Microsofts expertise in providing standard platforms, services, and applications.
The objective of the partnership is to design telematics systems which will provide drivers with a solution to communicate effectively with the outside world. The telematics systems will be flexible, easy to access and use. Therefore, they will allow users own devices such as cellular phones, Pocket PC or Windows Mobile devices to integrate with the vehicle. Motorists will be able to use standard information services, including web services, and a hands-free phone. Bluetooth connectivity ensures that drivers personal address book and contacts will be easily accessible in the car as well as digital music through a USB connection. This is available through high-quality voice activation. In addition, drivers will also have access to a wealth of services, including off board navigation and real-time traffic information such as those offered by bCONNECT.
The joint Fiat Auto-Microsoft system will be based on standard hardware and Windows Automotive, which enables Fiat Auto to implement a software design that can be customized and upgraded, according to customers preferences. Both companies plan to develop a system that inter-operates with the vehicle Controller Area Network (CAN) of the vehicles for diagnostic data.
Magneti Marelli, Fiat Group automotive components arm, will contribute to the venture by building the hardware on which the systems are integrated. The device from Magneti Marelli will be based on a reference design developed by Microsoft and Fiat Auto.
"Fiat Auto is at the forefront of telematics, having been amongst the first carmakers to feature a wide range of devices in all its vehicles, such as the bCONNECT infomobility services. We are very pleased to have Microsoft, a great innovator in the software industry and a leading expert in designing flexible platforms, as a partner in a unique business model based on recreating, on board, the computer world and structure", says Walter Mortara, Senior Vice President, Product and Process Engineering of Fiat Auto.
"Fiat Auto has consistently developed cars that have been affordable, practical and have greatly contributed to the motorization of entire countries. We are very excited in teaming up with Fiat Auto as we can bring industry-leading, yet practical telematics solutions, to motorists purchasing Fiats", comments Pieter Knook, Senior Vice President of the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft Corporation. "By combining Fiats knowledge of the auto industry with our knowledge of software, together we will be able to meet the needs of drivers and passengers for an enjoyable and safer in-car experience."
One of the pioneer companies in the automobile industry, Fiat has produced more than 85 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, including no less than 400 models, since 1899, when the company was founded in Turin, Italy. Some of them have represented milestones in the automotive industry. Fiat Auto operates world-wide with the following brands: Fiat, celebrated for value, economy, and innovation and whose mass produced cars are distributed over almost the entire price class spectrum; Lancia (acquired in 1969) means prestige cars noted for their elegant styling, and comfort; Alfa Romeo (acquired in 1986) is famous as a maker of sport and luxury vehicles of style and distinction.
bCONNECT
bCONNECT is a Fiat Auto company set in 2001 to offer pan-European infomobility services for Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo customers. At any time bCONNECT responds to communication and information needs of the drivers, through telematics systems on board of the vehicles, mobile phones and internet access.
Magneti Marelli
Magneti Marelli, a Fiat Auto Group company, is an international leader in the design and production of high-tech components and systems for the automotive industry based in Italy. Founded in 1919, the company has industrial and R&D facilities in Argentina, Brazil, the Czech Republic, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the US. Magneti Marelli supplies the worlds major car manufacturers such as Renault, Citron, Peugeot, Fiat Group, Ford, Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, BMW, Rover, DaimlerChrysler, GM-Opel, Volvo, Saab, Nissan, Toyota, and Daewoo.
Windows Automotive
Microsoft has invested eight years in providing the automotive industry with great software that delivers information, entertainment, communication, and services in vehicles. The company works very closely with automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and consumers to provide the embedded automotive market with the systems and tools for building the next generation of intelligent, Windows powered devices that demand rich applications and Internet services for a wide range of flexible solutions.
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