Manufacturing and Engineering Magazine Volume 420 - September 2015 | Page 86

the last word.qxp_feature 2 05/08/2015 12:31 Page 84

THE LAST WORD...

self-drive cars
fact not fiction
Self-driving cars are not pieces of fiction
anymore. The day entire highways are
awash with cars full of passengers and
zero drivers is closer than you think. In
fact, the reality of the self-drive vehicle
on the commercial market is even closer
after major German car manufacturers
including Audi, BMW and Daimler,
bought Nokia’s “Here” digital mapping
business. The £2bn deal sees the
carmakers take control of Nokia’s
innovative technology, which aims to
build cloud-based maps to control
vehicles on the road.
For the automotive industry, this
is the basis for new assistance
systems and ultimately fully
autonomous driving. "High-precision
digital maps are a crucial component
of the mobility of the future," said
Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the
board of Daimler. Along with BMW,

84

Audi and other manufacturers in
Germany, the carmakers plan to use
“Here” to combine digital maps with
real-time vehicle data. The speed at
which map updates and vehicle data
can be processed will dictate how
quickly self-drive cars can become a
reality on our roads.
"No single carmaker can do it by
themselves," said “Here” President Sean
Fernback, suggesting this new
collaboration is key to the progression of
the technology. "The new ownership
structure of “Here” will allow us to
accelerate our strategy, further scale our
business and fulfil our intent to become
the leading location cloud company
across industries.”
The sale is part of Nokia’s ongoing
refocus of its business endeavours.
Earlier this year it bought French rival
Alcatel-Lucent in a £11.2bn deal. "With

MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

this step we complete the latest stage of
Nokia's transformation," said Rajeev Suri,
chief executive officer of Nokia. Going
forward, we will focus on our planned
combination with Alcatel-Lucent. Once
that is complete, Nokia will be a renewed
company, with a world-leading network
technol