The two companies said at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona today that they want to simplify the process for car makers, which currently have to work with many different mobile operators.
“This alliance with Vodafone Business is a natural extension of our existing relationship,” said Chris Penrose, AT&T’s president of internet of things (IoT) solutions, (pictured).
Stefano Gastaut, IoT director at Vodafone Business, said: “Our work with AT&T will benefit automotive manufacturers and their customers around the world as we simplify processes and provide a consistent experience to accelerate IoT adoption in this fast-moving market.”
Penrose added: “We each have rich experience in connected vehicle technology. By working together, we can innovate faster and help our global customers bring connectivity, entertainment and telematics to more vehicles across our respective footprints.”
Gastaut said: “As technology complexity increases, this is the right time to make technology adoption easier for the automotive industry to help them achieve their business outcomes. This is the goal of this alliance.”
The companies said they collectively work with nearly 50 global automotive brands and connect more than 43 million cars and trucks on the road today.
Details of the new joint venture are still a bit thin. They said they will bring together their expertise to develop connected-car solutions and experiences for customers across their combined footprints in North America, Europe and Africa.
The project will cover vehicle-to-everything (V2X) capabilities, including in-vehicle entertainment, connected-car applications and services and global service quality models – plus they will work on the link between connected cars and smart cities. But so far they have not provided details of the structure of their relationship.
