BMW, Audi and Diamler are set to a complete a £1.96 billion purchase of Nokia’s ‘Here’ mapping unit in the first quarter of next year. The premium car giants have purchased the new navigation system as part of their push towards fully autonomous driving. Nokia’s specialist system will give them access to precise digital maps and real time vehicle data as they seek to increase road safety and lower the chance of collisions in driverless cars.
Nokia’s ‘Here’ is a cloud based dashboard navigation system which already supplies map data for about 80% of cars in Europe and North America. It downloads real time information in order to detect any problems on a scheduled route and suggests an alternative route to avoid delays.
The German car manufacturers will equally share the ownership of ‘Here’ but other car makers that are already using the system can continue to do so. The car giants have big ideas on how Nokia’s system will aid them in providing safe autonomous driving. Diamler claims the vision of accident free driving is gradually becoming a reality.
