PREMIUM trio of car makers Audi, BMW and Mercedes (Daimler AG)  have joined forces to buy into – but not control of – Nokia’s mapping and location business called HERE to share a digital mobility future.

It is seen as the key to a digitised world of mobility, not just in-car navigation but including autonomous motoring and more.

The acquisition, completed with approval from all relevant authorities, leaves the way open to other shareholders to join in the enterprise, with a new shareholder and governance structure designed to secure HERE’s independence and allow for the seamless continuation of their day-to-day business.

First-rate maps and a new understanding of location-based services are the foundation for HERE to continue on its successful growth course – as an open, independent and value-creating company to the benefit of many hundreds of customers from multiple industries.

HERE’s location platform is set to deliver high definition maps combined with real-time location information, providing customers with a detailed representation of the real world in real time. This is achieved through HERE’s leading mapping technology combined with countless data sources such as cars, mobile phones, the transport and logistics sector as well as infrastructure elements.

While 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 and this is where the premium trio come into play.

The more data added to the HERE platform, the better its maps, products and services become.

HERE being secured as an independent and open company creates new options to accelerate this effort with customers providing the company with huge quantities of anonymised data. In that context the currently more than 2 million connected vehicles from Audi AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG which are capable of collecting advanced high quality location-based data already today offer enormous potential to accelerate the development of HERE’s location platform.

To enable HERE to further enhance its location platform, improve its products and generate new services for all customers, the three companies, together with HERE, are evaluating the benefit of providing sensor data from their fleets to HERE. All customers – automotive, enterprise, consumers – are invited to join and benefit, as such a step would make HERE even more attractive for customers and additional investors.

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.

Prof. Rupert Stadler, chairman of Audi’s baord, said: “HERE has again and again redefined the map over the last 30 years. It is our expectation that it will continue to lead the industry in its next phase of innovation, thereby creating further value.”

For BMW,  board member Klaus Frohlich said: “The combination of this leading map technology with data from vehicles, devices and infrastructure will give HERE and its customers a clear advantage in the development of future mobility services.”

Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, Daimler board member and responsible for group research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, added:  “Customers from the automotive industry are particularly interested in highly-automated driving. But HERE is much more than a market leader in digital maps … the company has the potential to become the leading provider of technology for real-time location services in the digitised world of mobility.”