On Thursday, Bosch revealed that it is purchasing a five percent stake in the mapping and location services company named Here. For doing so, it joins other investors Audi, BMW, Daimler-Benz, and Intel, the automakers having purchased the company for $2.7 billion from Nokia in 2015, with Intel then purchasing a 15 percent stake in early last year.
“Bosch is more than automobiles,” states Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. “Industry 4.0, smart homes, and smart cities are quickly growing areas of business for us, where developing and expanding data-based services will lead to synergies with Here.”
While some auto lovers would know about Here as one of the companies dealing with extremely detailed maps to be used by autonomous vehicles, some drivers will not have to wait that long to take advantage of its technology. On Wednesday, Here also revealed the commercial launch of its Safety Services Suite, which will offer localized hazard cautions and updated road sign information. The services will initially appear in BMWs in North America and Europe in mid-2018.
The information that enters into the Safety Services Suite is aggregated from sensor data collected by vehicles from not just BMW however the other brands that work with Here– think of it like an OEM-level version of crowdsourced platforms like Waze.
BMW, Daimler and Audi purchased HERE for 2.8 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in 2015 from Finnish telecoms group Nokia as they pushed investments in autonomous technology.
