Microsoft's autonomous driving strategy

Four of the five major U.S. technology giants, Google's parent company Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, have already been involved in autonomous driving. Last week, autonomous driving company Cruise and its parent company General Motors announced that they had reached a long-term strategic cooperation agreement with Microsoft to jointly promote the commercialization of autonomous vehicles. They will also invest $2 billion in Cruise at a valuation of $30 billion. The only company that has not yet been involved in autonomous driving is Facebook.

1. Microsoft invests $2 billion in Cruise

According to the official statement, Microsoft, together with General Motors, Honda and other institutional investors, will make a new equity investment of more than US$2 billion (approximately RMB 12.955 billion) in Cruise, which will increase Cruise's post-investment valuation to US$30 billion. According to previous news, before this round of financing, Cruise had raised US$7.25 billion (approximately RMB 46.963 billion) from investors such as General Motors, SoftBank, and Honda. Including this round of financing, Cruise's total financing amount to date has exceeded US$9.25 billion (approximately RMB 59.919 billion).

Cruise and GM describe their collaboration with Microsoft as a "long-term strategic partnership," and the close relationship will undoubtedly help combine the three companies' respective strengths, including software and hardware engineering, manufacturing and cloud computing capabilities.

Microsoft will use its cloud computing platform Azure to support Cruise and will become Cruise's preferred cloud service provider. At the same time, Cruise's "deep industry expertise" will also become an important foundation for Microsoft to develop related algorithms and help Microsoft further upgrade the Azure platform. GM will also use its cooperation with Microsoft to improve its own digital projects, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and collaboration projects.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Engadget that Microsoft will "use the power of Azure to help Cruise scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream."

2. Microsoft's autonomous driving strategy

Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has been working on autonomous driving for more than 10 years and is currently a leading company in this field. It has launched the self-driving taxi service Waymo One in Phoenix, Arizona. In October last year, it was approved to provide fully autonomous driving services to passengers in the area without a safety driver in the front seat.

At the end of last year, Apple received news from the industry chain that Apple Car is expected to be launched two years ahead of schedule in September this year and start production in 2024. Korean media said that they have been negotiating cooperation with Hyundai Motor, and Kia, a subsidiary of Hyundai, is expected to manufacture cars for Apple.

Amazon has invested in Rivian, which focuses on electric vehicles and autonomous driving technology. Rivian has also built a pure electric delivery vehicle for Amazon, which was launched in August last year. It has not yet achieved autonomous driving, but is equipped with an advanced assisted driving system.

Microsoft's approach to the self-driving car industry is different.

Sanjay Ravi, general manager of Microsoft's automotive industry, once said that Microsoft's automotive strategy does not involve car manufacturing or providing terminal mobility as a service. It supports the industry by providing intelligent cloud, edge, IoT and AI services and helping automotive companies build and expand their own digital capabilities to unlock huge potential.

Microsoft's cross-border autonomous driving has three key principles:

1. Become a partner to the entire industry. Not in the business of manufacturing cars or providing terminal mobility as a service. Believe that data should belong to customers because data insights will become a new driver of revenue for the automotive industry. Will not monetize customer data. Enhance and expand the unique brand experience for automotive companies to expand their relationship with customers

Microsoft is working with global partners in five key areas: connected vehicle solutions, autonomous driving development, smart mobility solutions, connected marketing, sales and services, and smart manufacturing and supply chain.

1. Enhanced intelligent connected car solutions

At the heart of Microsoft is the Microsoft Connected Car Platform (MCVP), which combines advanced cloud and edge computing services with a strong partner network so automotive companies can build connected driving solutions from in-car experiences and autonomous driving to predictive services and connectivity.

Volkswagen and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, as well as LG, Faurecia and Cubic Telecom, are all using the platform to build related in-vehicle applications.

2. Accelerate the development of autonomous driving functions

By providing comprehensive cloud, edge, IoT and AI services and an open ecosystem led by partners, it enables automakers, suppliers and mobility service providers to accelerate the development of autonomous driving solutions to provide safe, comfortable and personalized driving experiences. Microsoft for Startups: Autonomous Driving program was launched to accelerate the growth of startups engaged in autonomous driving and help them seize new business opportunities in areas such as delivery, ride sharing and long-distance transportation.

For example, FEV uses Microsoft Azure to overcome the main challenges faced in validating autonomous driving functions with a self-developed data management and evaluation system. Intempora has developed the Intempora Validation Suite for testing, training, benchmarking, and validation of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and HAD (Highly Automated Driving) algorithms.

3. Support the creation of smart mobility solutions

Smart mapping and navigation services are critical to building smart mobility solutions. Microsoft has partnered with companies like TomTom and Moovit to provide comprehensive multimodal trip planners and more using Azure Maps.

4. Strengthen online marketing, sales and service solutions

With Microsoft Business Applications, automotive partners, suppliers, and retailers can develop new customer insights and create omnichannel customer experience tools. With Microsoft Automotive Accelerator, automotive companies can schedule appointments and car services with proactive communications.

5. Provide services for building smart supply chains

Driving end-to-end digital transformation requires an integrated digital supply chain from factories and workshops to end customer delivery. Microsoft is working with Icertis, BMW, and others to build an intelligent supply chain to enable industrial manufacturers to work together to break down data silos and overcome the challenges posed by complex proprietary systems.

These five strategic directions are actually somewhat similar to Tencent’s autonomous driving strategy. Instead of acquiring startups and autonomous vehicles in cities, Microsoft offers a program to support autonomous vehicle startups by providing them with engineering support and cloud services to become potential Microsoft partners in the future.