French car manufacturer Renault has announced a collaboration with the Israeli crowdsourced traffic and navigation app, Waze. Waze, now a unit of Google, will showcase a prototype demo of its app for Android Auto exclusively with Renault at the Paris Motor Show starting Saturday.
As far as is known this is Waze's first collaboration with an automaker and the plan is for future Renault cars to be manufactured with Waze built in. Until now Waze has focused on the after-market as a smartphone app.
“Renault is committed to making life on board easy, and we are delighted to work closely with Waze on connecting drivers in our cars with the free, popular navigation app in order to give customers more choice about what they want to use”, said Benoit Joly, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Connected Car & Mobility Services at Groupe Renault.
Renault added that to celebrate the launch of the ZOE with new Z.E. 40 battery, starting October 1, Renault-branded pins will appear within the Waze map of 13,000 French electric car charging locations, as well as branded search in-app to better locate these stations.
Jerome Marty, Ads Waze Country Manager France said: “ For Waze, the navigation app powered by the world’s largest community of drivers, our mission is to help drivers be more knowledgeable on the roads. Knowing that Renault is breaking into new territory by popularizing electric cars, it’s critical that we’re able to help our joint customers find charging stations as easily as a petrol station. We’re both committed to making driving a pleasant and easy experience and look forward to finding additional ways to work together like Waze for Android Auto.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 29, 2016
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