Microsoft and Toyota are partnering to bring cloud computing to the car.

The two companies said Wednesday they are building in-car services that run on Microsoft's cloud platform, Windows Azure.

Car buyers could start seeing the new features in Toyota's electric and plug-in hybrid cars in 2012. Toyota says its goal is to offer full cloud services to all Toyota customers by 2015.

The two companies will invest $12 million in Toyota Media Service, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor.

Microsoft built the platform of Ford's in-car service, Sync. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer grew up near Detroit and his father was a manager at Ford.

“Today’s announcement of our partnership with TMC [Toyota Motor Co.] is a great example of how we continue to invest in the automotive industry and of our commitment to power the services that are important to consumers,” Ballmer said in a statement. “It further validates the power of the cloud, as the Windows Azure platform will provide the enterprise-grade, scalable platform that TMC needs to deliver telematics in its automobiles worldwide.”

Telematics refers to in-car services such as On Star and Sync.

The two companies will hold a webcast news conference at 1 p.m. today.

Update 2:02 p.m.:

Ballmer and Toyoda gave some examples of services to emerge from the partnership in the news conference, which was webcast from Redmond.

• Drivers could turn on their home heating and air conditioning from the car while driving home.
• They could use a smartphone to schedule when to charge a plug-in Toyota hybrid car, such as when energy costs are least expensive.
• They could use a smartphone to check the car's battery level and monitor how many miles they can drive before recharging.

Ballmer made the distinction that because this service will run in the cloud, drivers can control information to and from the car via PCs and smartphones.

With Sync, the in-car platform Microsoft built for Ford, drivers use controls inside the car to use Sync's location and music services.

Toyoda began the press conference by thanking the U.S. and Microsoft for support following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

"Our deepest sympathy go out to everybody affected," Toyoda said at the news conference. "I debated whether or not to come here today, but I recently visited the most affected area. ... I came away believing that in addition to supporting the recovery effort, the best thing I can do for them in Japan is to provide hope and steady economic progress for the future."