Automotive manufacturers continue to look to the future, with Toyota recently tapping up IBM to build and design an application development platform that will foster the creation of in-car services to improve the driver experience. The project is part of Toyota’s newly established telematics service, called T-Connect.

The companies said they will work together to create an onboard devices and application development environment for the Toyota Open Vehicle Architecture, a single development platform that will bring together an ecosystem of mobile app developers and content providers that provide content for T-Connect. Using the IBM platform, app developers and content providers will be able to better collaborate on building and designing apps for in-car services, the companies said.

The IBM platform will offer a Software Development Kit (SDK) for onboard device applications based on IBM Lotus Expeditor for Automotive.

The connected car market is seeing a great deal of investment at present, forming a significant part of the wider M2M/IoT market. A recent report issued by the GSMA and conducted by research firm SBD forecasts that the global connected vehicle market is predicted to be worth nearly $53bn in 2018, up from $17bn in 2012.

As the automotive industry continues to produce new vehicles with advanced in-car technology, the demand for developers is increasing as automakers ramp up their efforts to create apps for the next generation of connected vehicles.

“As the industry continues to move toward bringing fully connected vehicles to market, new requirements for leveraging innovations in technologies like mobile continue to emerge,” said Dirk Wollschläger, general manager, Global Automotive Industry, IBM. “The connected vehicle transformation will require collaboration across disciplines,” he said.