(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is collaboratingwith Microsoft Corp. to consolidate much of the carmaker’s globalresearch in telematics, data analytics andnetwork security services as the auto industry expandsconnected-vehicle technologies.

The Toyota Connected venture will be headed by Zack Hicks,chief information officer and group vice president at Toyota MotorNorth America, and will be based in Plano, Texas. The initialinvestment will be $5.5 million, the automaker said Monday.

Toyota plans to use data science through Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology to develop servicesthat “help to humanize the driving experience,’’ according to astatement. “Toyota Connected will help free our customers from thetyranny of technology,’’ Hicks said in the statement.

Automakers expanding connected-car services

Automakers are expanding connected-car services as the industryheads toward technologies such as autonomous vehicles. Telematics combines computers and wirelesstechnology to provide services such as infotainmentand real-time traffic updates to moving vehicles. Toyota andMicrosoft have been collaborating in this area since 2011.

Kurt DelBene, executive vice president of corporate strategy andplanning at Microsoft, said the company will work with ToyotaConnected “to make driving more personal, intuitive and safe.”

The new venture will study everything from cars that help eachother analyze traffic patterns to use-based insurance pricing toconnecting drivers with information and security services in theirhomes. The effort comes amid a broader push by the world’s largestautomaker to accelerate its research into artificial intelligenceand robotics.

In January, Toyota began a $1 billion, five-yearinvestment in Toyota Research Institute Inc., which issetting up centers near Stanford University and MassachusettsInstitute of Technology. Leading the effort is Gill Pratt, theformer top robotics engineer for the U.S. military.

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