Techaudi, bmw, daimler, acquisition, deal, Here, Digital Mapping Business
Dec 10, 2015 10:11 AM EST
Audi, BMW, and Daimler, the famous German automobile manufacturers can be called the holy trinity of the automobile industry. Three of them came together to finally close the deal of purchasing Nokia's digital mapping business called 'Here'. The acquisition of this navigation system will play a major role in the technologies of self-driving cars.
Audi, BMW and Daimler will hold an equal amount of stake in Nokia's digital mapping business known as 'Here'. According to the NDTV report, HERE is Nokia's excellent mapping and location system, currently used in a lot of vehicles including on models produced by the aforementioned German trio. Moreover, in 2014, Nokia also traded its telephone division to Microsoft.
Nokia is a Finnish telecommunications company renowned for creating ultra-modern technologies. The popularity of 'Here' is playing an important role in the present semi and fully autonomous technology being incorporated into modern time vehicles.The demand is increasing with each passing day. If you are not yet familiar with 'Here', it is the high time to look into it.
As per the Digital Trends news, "High-precision digital maps are a crucial component of the mobility of the future," stated DieterZetsche, Chairman of Daimler.
In fact, the German holy trinity of automobile industry had to compete with Uber, an app-based taxi service giant and Baidu, a Chinese web service organization before closing the deal. Now, Audi, BMW, and Daimler are allowed to experiment with Nokia's 'Here' freely to develop futuristic technologies for automobiles.
In August 2014, the news of acquiring Nokia's digital navigation system first appeared. Then, the expected date of final decision had been set during the 2016 first quarter. However, the regulatory procedures took far lesser time than the syndicate had initially anticipated and the sale was completed a lot earlier.
As the Auto Blog reports, Audi, BMW, and Daimler have banded together to acquire the enterprise for a reported $2.7 billion. Irrespective of keeping it to themselves, the automakers plan to operate openly and independently.
These three automobile makers already have millions of vehicles on the road. All of them are highly capable of integrating Nokia's high-tech digital mapping system into their existing one.
By assimilating 'HERE' with existing sensors and overall systems, information can be organized and shared via the cloud to all other vehicles equipped with the similar navigation setup. This initiative will help enhance the real-time performance along with the precision of autonomous technology.
This will be possible as vehicles will themselves be aware of approaching traffic jams, accidents up ahead, roadworks, etc. Self-directed cars can then be automated to warn the driver and act accordingly like changing the driving route.