Bosch Might Take a Stake in HERE Digital Mapping

Bosch is in the process of negotiating the terms with an HD digital maps company HERE.

They are currently talking about whether or not Bosch will continue offering its services to HERE’s customers.

HERE is a company controlled by the alliance of BMW, Daimler AG, and VW. Last December, Nokia’s business HERE was successfully acquired by the three automakers, and each of them holds an equal stake. The goal of acquisition was to ensure the long-term availability of products and services created by HERE. Their products and services include cloud-based maps and other mobile services. All the customers from the auto industry and many other sectors can access those products and services.

There’s no interest by any of the companies to acquire a majority interest – the deal is to continue the collaboration with equal stakes.

Those digital maps are extremely precise and can be combined with digital data from the vehicle in order to increase the road safety level, as well as to develop new products and services. For example, such cloud-based technology is one of the crucial factors to achieve autonomous driving.

More big players are interested in taking a minority stakes in HERE, such as Amazon and Microsoft.

The original three owners acquired HERE from Nokia for $2.8 billion.