IBM is teaming up with BMW in order to provide the tech for parts of the car manufacturers open data platform, CarData.
Big Blue is a pilot partner to the open data platform that the car maker hopes will allow up to 8.5 million BMW customers to use third party services.
CarData is said to give BMW ConnectedDrive customers the ability to share telematics data from their cars with any third party of their choice. 
IBM’s role sees its Bluemix offering integrated with the BMW CarData platform and vehicle data will be enhanced by using IBM Watson IoT. The idea is that cognitive and data analytics services will enable third parties to develop new customer experiences, for example around car repair shops, or insurance companies.
Big Blue’s cloud platform will give developers access to the entire service catalogue from IBM and its ecosystem partners, with customers given the ability to actively agree to whether or not they want to share their encrypted telematics data when they use a specific service from a service provider.
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“The concept of a neutral server fosters innovation by establishing a single point of contact for multiple parties to access vehicle data from various manufacturers, thereby reducing integration cost whilst ensuring fair competition,” said Dirk Wollschlaeger, General Manager IBM Global Automotive, Aerospace and Defense.
IBM’s role will also see it act as a neutral server for extended vehicle access, which will allow for the gathering of data from BMW vehicles but also vehicles from additional car manufacturers.
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