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Alps Alpine Enters Comprehensive Alliance with FreeBit Co., Ltd.
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Jul 23, 2019
Alps Alpine Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 6770; President & CEO: Toshihiro
Kuriyama) and FreeBit Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo;
Representative Director and President: Nobuaki Tanaka) have entered a
comprehensive alliance allowing them to successfully navigate what is viewed
as a once-in-a-century major transformation in the automotive industry. The
move anticipates seamless car lifestyles in an age characterized by CASE
(connected cars, autonomous driving, sharing and services, and electric
vehicles) and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), business domains encompassed by
the automotive infotainment segment.
Business collaboration will be pursued under the Car-as-a-Service
(CaaS) concept. Technology enabling digital transformation of services using
Internet infrastructure – an area where FreeBit excels – will be used to
complement automotive infotainment systems built around Alps Alpine’s
human-machine interface (HMI) technology.
Alps Alpine and FreeBit have joined forces at trade shows to
present the Car Key Platform they unveiled in January this year – an outcome
of their joint development of basic technology relating to digital keys.
Car Key Platform enables simple, low-cost establishment of digital
key management arrangements, covering the issuing of keys and transfers of
authority. Vehicle owner data and authorization are managed using blockchains.
Through the comprehensive alliance with FreeBit, with its advantages in
technical and service development relating to equipment, communication lines,
clouds and blockchains, Alps Alpine will pursue development leading to
utilization within IT infrastructure that can contribute to the automotive
industry.