When struck with a sudden car breakdown, there is no need to panic, as Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced a cloud-based data service that gives carmakers the ability to diagnose issues without having to travel to the vehicle or customers having to take their vehicle to them.

The service not only improves safety and prevents recalls but helps to manage related data on a cloud-based system, AWS IoT FleetWise, as well.

This tool was unveiled at the Amazon.com Inc's annual re:Invent conference, Las Vegas and it belongs to its newly branded AWS for Automotive suite of products and services for the automotive industry.

Mike Tzamaloukas, general manager, AWS for Automotive describes the tool saying it enables customers, such as car suppliers and transportation providers, to collect, organize, and transfer vehicle data to the cloud while standardizing diverse data formats to facilitate data analysis.

Customers will be able to get fragmented data from various fleet models and vehicle kinds using FleetWise. It's also meant to complement data-driven services from automakers like OnStar from General Motors and Ford Pro Intelligence from Ford Motor Company.

According to Dean Phillips, worldwide tech leader for the business unit, the new service combines a comprehensive variety of in-vehicle and cloud-to-vehicle products from AWS for Automotive and 185 business partners.

"We're trying to make it simpler and easier for our customers to discover solutions to their problems”, he says. He also adds, “citing the development of self-driving cars and digital customer engagement, including streamed services, as examples of the industry's growing shift to software-defined vehicles and systems”.

Amazon's AWS unit continues to grow, despite the fact that the company does not break out the value of its automotive cloud services business. Cloud computing, data storage, analytics, and application development are all part of the AWS portfolio.

“The sheer volume of data produced by vehicles equipped with cameras, lidars, and radars is expanding exponentially as vehicles become more sophisticated and complex. FleetWise was created to allow customers to simply access fragmented data across the numerous fleet models and vehicle kinds”, says Tzamaloukas.

AWS recorded an operating profit of $13.5 billion last year, on revenues of $45.4 billion, up 47 percent and 30 percent from the prior year. Despite the ongoing pandemic and global supply-chain disruptions, AWS's growth was even more robust in the first nine months this year, with operating profit of $13.2 billion on sales of $44.4 billion, nearly matching its full-year results of last year.