In August, German carmakers BMW, Audi and Mercedes paid around 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) for Nokia’s maps business HERE, beating out high-tech rivals for location services seen as key to the future of self-driving cars. The deal was concluded on December 4.
The company’s goal is to deliver high definition maps combined with real-time location information, providing customers a detailed representation of the real world in real time. This is achieved through HERE’s mapping technology combined with countless data sources such as cars, mobile phones, the transport and logistics sector as well as infrastructure elements.
HERE currently powers its map with data from more than 80,000 sources and billions of probe points daily, the company is actively engaged in connecting to millions of vehicles and their on-board sensors that generate information about the car’s surroundings. The more data added to the HERE platform, the better its maps, products and services become. This will bring a huge benefit for all customers leading to more comfort when travelling, safer roads for everybody, less congestion and cleaner urban areas.
This data will be supplemented by more than 2 million connected vehicles from AUDI AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG that are capable of collecting advanced high quality location based data already today offer enormous potential to accelerate the development of HERE’s location platform.
HERE already plays a central role in the development of highly automated driving, because no vehicle manufacturer can successfully develop this future area of mobility without high precision, up-to-date maps. Four out of five new vehicles sold in Europe and North America with in-car navigation have digital maps from HERE on board.
In future, maps will give vehicles the ability to effectively ‘see around corners’, enabling them to anticipate road hazards and prepare and adjust driving strategies accordingly in a way that increases driver trust. Self-driving cars, too, will rely heavily on accurate road maps and real time data.
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