A few weeks ago, the acquisition of HERE by the consortium of BMW, Daimler and Audi was approved by the German Antitrust authority and today (7th Dec 2015) marks the official beginning of a new chapter in the history of HERE (Related: Starting today, it’s a new world for HERE…).

So what next?

In the blog post announcing the new chapter for HERE, a few key areas were highlighted – smarter urban mobility, evolution of the car, a new era of transportation and better management of assets.

Cars as real-time sensors

HERE has been working on the Autonomous Driving project for a while now and the renewed focus on using data from cars is going to serve the company better in the long run (Related: Interview with HERE about their Autonomous Driving project).

In a related Associated Press report, the consortium (BMW, Daimler and Audi) are looking at turning their cars into real-time sensors that will provide anonymous data to the HERE map service (Read more: German automakers want real-time car data for maps app).

Tesla has already been using their cars as real-time sensors and the recent AutoPilot feature has only showcased the potential of using connected cars for updating and maintaining HD map, so it’s only natural that the consortium is looking at ways to maximize the existing potential of HERE to further their autonomous driving projects.

Best wishes @HERE

4 of the top ten “Most Innovative Companies” listed by the Boston Consulting Group were car manufacturers, signalling the importance connected cars and related tech have in our lives. This is great news for HERE and for their future.

Here’s wishing HERE the best on their new chapter 😉 Keep the awesomeness going!

Source: HERE 360, Associated Press