Avis Budget Group is planning to use Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Connected Vehicle Solution to build its data analytics platform, the car rental company announced. Working with AWS provides highly secure and scalable cloud services for Avis Budget Group’s global connected car platform.

Avis Budget will leverage AWS’s capabilities for artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data management to develop a wide variety of innovative connected vehicle applications and mobility services. Avis Budget Group currently has more than 100,000 connected cars globally and has committed to a fully connected fleet by 2020. Data intelligence and data-as-a-service stemming from connected cars are expected to increase operational efficiencies for the company and benefit smart city planning.

“Our connected car data is manufacturer agnostic, meaning we have the ability to analyze data across makes and models, and our worldwide footprint gives us access to all corners of the globe,” Arthur Orduña, chief innovation officer at  Avis, said in a statement. “The platform we built leveraging AWS’s connected vehicle solution gives us advanced data management and scalable analytics capabilities for our connected car platform. We now have the ability to scale up based on demand and our data is backed by AWS’s software and massive infrastructure, so we have access to new insights-driven tools, storage resources, and first-class security.”

Connected car data provides Avis Budget Group significant opportunity to streamline operations and reduce costs. This includes real-time inventory counts, mileage management and automated maintenance notification. Connected car data also allows for more sophisticated tracking of idle vehicles and automated processing of cars ready to rent. 

AWS supports Avis Budget Group’s initiative to retain and manage a virtual environment with worldwide consistency across the operating system, programming language, web application platform, database, and other services needed. AWS’s focus on security will also ensure the integrity and protection of connected car data and other data sets to be stored by Avis Budget Group, a critical component for the continued growth of the global Internet of Things market.

This announcement deepens an already existing relationship between Avis Budget Group and Amazon, which dates back to 2017 when Avis launched a skill for Amazon Alexa. This year, the two companies also announced that Amazon customers who book an Avis or Budget vehicle can save money on their rental and receive an Amazon.com Gift Card.