Microsoft and Toyota jointly announced today their partnership to invest 1 billion yen (about $12 million) to bring telematics to your next-generation Toyota vehicle by harnessing the Windows Azure cloud platform. And in case you’re unfamiliar, telematics is the fusing of telecomunnications and information technologies in vehicles.

The joint telematics system will first appear in 2012 Toyota electric and plug-in hybrid cars and will provide energy management, GPS systems, and multimedia technologies. By 2015, when Microsoft’s global cloud platform is set to complete, these next-gen vehicles will be able to connect to servers from around the world.