Toyota, Intel, others to form auto big data consortium

(Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp , chipmaker Intel Corp and other technology and auto companies are forming a consortium to create an ecosystem for big data used in connected cars, the Japanese automaker said on Thursday.

Swiss telecom equipment maker Ericsson , Japanese auto parts maker Denso Corp and telecoms firm NTT DoCoMo Inc are also part of the group, called the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium.

The consortium aims to use data to support emerging services such as intelligent driving, creating maps with real-time data and driving assistance based on cloud computing, Toyota said in a statement. (http://bit.ly/2wykKnQ).

As cars are equipped with new capabilities, from staying in lanes to driving themselves, they are using and producing vast amounts of information, including where they drive.

Data volume between vehicles and the cloud is expected to reach 10 exabytes per month around 2025, about 10,000 times larger than at present, Toyota said.

Last week, Toyota and smaller rival Mazda Motor Corp said that they would work jointly on producing electric and connected cars.

(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)