BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Following its acquisition of Hughes Telematics earlier this month, Verizon has announced the formation of the 4G Venture Forum for Connected Cars, a group of leading global automotive companies brought together by Verizon to accelerate the pace of innovation across the automotive and telematics 4G LTE ecosystem.
 
BMW, Honda, Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors and Toyota Motor Sales Inc. are joining Verizon as the initial members of the forum. Professor Sanjay Sarma of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also joins the forum, providing members a link to track important advancements in related academic research.
 
The group plans to collaborate and explore ways to deliver connectivity to vehicles of all types, by leveraging open standards and discussing ways to accelerate development of the 4G LTE ecosystem across automotive OEMs, suppliers, device manufacturers, application developers and content publishers.
 
Verizon says the 4G Venture Forum for Connected Cars will help discover ways to increase the value of services, ranging from embedded cloud-connected solutions to mobile applications; help define features and explore safety systems; and encourage third-party developers in this space.