Toyota Motor Corporation Australia (TMCA) announced on Tuesday it was partnering with Telstra to bring LTE connectivity to “select TMCA vehicles” in late 2020.
The connectivity will initially be used for “new safety and security services designed to provide customers with additional peace of mind”, the companies said.
Details on the functionality are otherwise scant, with the platform used being built by Toyota and Japanese telco KDDI.
At the start of last year, KDDI announced they would use AT&T to provide LTE connectivity to Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the US, which would allow for Wi-Fi hotspots within cars, remote start and climate control, diagnostics, safety connectivity, and the ability to download areas to navigation systems.
Earlier on Tuesday, Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton announced that Telstra CEO Andy Penn would chair the Industry Advisory Committee, a permanent committee that would advise the government on cyber matters, and the implementation of the 2020 Cyber Security Strategy.
Penn was the chair of the temporary industry advisory panel that provided 60 recommendations to feed into the strategy, which included the creation of the permanent committee.
Joining Penn will be deputy chair of the committee and chair of AUCloud Cathie Reid; CSO of NBN Darren Kane; CEO of Northtop Grumman Australia Chris Deeble; NextDC, Megaport, and Superloop founder Bevan Slattery; CEO of Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre Rachael Falk; CEO of Macquire Telecom Group David Tudehope; trust and risk business leader at PwC Australia Corinne Best; NAB group executive for technology and enterprise operations Patrick Wright; and former Labor foreign minister and now chair of University of Western Australia Public Policy Institute Professor Stephen Smith.
