Audi, BMW, Daimler join forces to buy Nokia maps

Audi, BMW and Daimler have teamed up to buy Nokia’s mapping business for an incredible €2.8 billion ($A4.2b).

The
deal for Nokia’s HERE business gives each car-maker an equal stake of
the navigation firm that already supplies more than 80 per cent of all
in-car satellite-navigation systems.

The reason behind the
expensive purchase is thought to be fears that HERE would fall into the
hands of Nokia’s Silicon Valley rivals -- Google or Apple, which would
then dominate the technology globally.

If that happened some
within the car industry were worried Google or Apple could strong-arm
the traditional car-makers when it launches its own autonomous vehicles.

Since
the car-makers will no longer be reliant on third parties, the buyout
will help the three German brands steer the development of autonomous
driving -- a technology heavily reliant on the mapping technology.

Some
of the intelligent mapping services already developed by Nokia will
connect self-driving vehicles in the future to help them automatically
re-route if congestion is detected.

Connected vehicles will also
be safer, says Nokia, since all vehicles in the future will play a role
in detecting and avoiding potential hazards.

“For the automotive
industry this is the basis for new assistance systems and ultimately
fully autonomous driving,” the car-makers said in a joint statement
released yesterday.

The car-makers say the industry’s technology
will move towards pooling car data to a cloud, which will be available
to all cars linked to the system, regardless of brand, to avoid traffic
problems and even crashes at intersections in what is dubbed Anonymous
Swarm Intelligence.

“HERE will be able to offer users a
continuously improving product, bringing highly automated driving and
location-based services a step further,” Audi’s Board Member for
Technical Development, Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, said.

“As the volume
of anonymised data from the vehicles increases, services will become
more convenient, more connected and further tailored to the users’
individual requirements,” he said.

Speaking about the deal, BMW
CEO Harald Krueger said: "HERE will play a key role in the digital
revolution of mobility, combining high-definition maps and data from
vehicles to make travel safer and easier for everyone.”

The $4.2b
deal, which has been described as “unprecedented” by industry pundits
since no joint acquisition by rival car-makers has ever been this large,
could have huge repercussions on some of Nokia’s existing customer
base.

It’s not known if rival car-makers not part of the deal
will now switch their navigation supplier from Nokia to Google or
others.

In an attempt to reassure industry-wide fears, Audi, BMW
and Daimler are said to be now welcoming other car-makers to join forces
with them and own a share of the new company.

The three
car-makers insist HERE will remain independently managed and its maps
and services will continue to remain available to other car companies,
including their rivals.

“High-precision digital maps are a
crucial component of the future,” Daimler Board of Management Chairman,
Dr Dieter Zetsche, said.

“With the joint acquisition of HERE, we
want to secure the independence of this central service for all vehicle
manufacturers, suppliers and customers in other industries,” he said.

About
80 per cent of the world’s in-car satellite-navigation systems already
use HERE, including other car-makers from Europe, the US and Asia. It’s
also the system of choice for Yahoo, Baidu and Amazon, plus The
Netherland’s ubiquitous Tom Tom portable satellite-navigation systems.
Its mapping covers 200 countries in more than 50 languages.

Other unsuccessful bidders for Nokia’s HERE business included Microsoft and online taxi firm, Uber.