AT&T innovation centre focuses on connected cars

US carrier AT&T has opened an innovation centre in Atlanta designed to be a launch pad for new ideas and companies with a focus on the digital life and connected car sectors.

The AT&T Foundry innovation centre in Atlanta will focus on Digital Life, AT&T’s recently-launched home security and automation service, as well as connected cars and AT&T’s home broadband and multi-play offering U-verse.

The sector is certainly a hot property. Autonomous vehicles will gradually gain traction in the market over the coming two decades and by 2035, sales of autonomous vehicles will reach 95.4 million annually, representing 75 per cent of all light-duty vehicle sales, aAccording to industry researcher Navigant Research.

Networking firm Cisco is a key sponsor of the Foundry and will bring technical and innovation capabilities along with help to scout out third-party developers, investors, startups and entrepreneurs around the world. But given its proximity to Georgia Tech, the Foundry will tap into the research expertise and entrepreneurial creativity at the university to help accelerate certain projects.

In Georgia, the app economy has an annual impact of $1.06bn, according to a study from CTIA and the Application Developers Alliance. Roughly 80,000 Atlantans work in information technology-related jobs, with software development and engineering among the city’s strengths.

“Georgia Tech and AT&T share a common focus on innovation and are already collaborating in a number of areas,” said Georgia Tech President G P Peterson. “Having an AT&T Foundry innovation centre in Tech Square will create even greater opportunities for our students and faculty, while allowing AT&T to take full advantage of the talent and intellectual resources at Tech, as they participate in the exciting growth of Midtown as an innovation district.”

There are currently four AT&T Foundry locations in total: in Palo Alto, California, Plano, Texas, and Ra’anana, Israel, focused on consumer, enterprise and back-office technology, respectively. A second location in Plano, focused on Machine-to-Machine technology, will open later this year.

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