Nokia HERE Mapping Service Sold for $3.07 Billion to German Auto Consortium

Nokia is reported that the company has sold HERE mapping service for a figure of $3.07 billion USD to German auto consortium which consists of Audi AG, BMW Group as well as Daimler AG. The deal is expected to finalize in the first quarter of 2016 with profit of about $2.75 Billion.

One of the reasons that can be concluded on why the automakers are willing to purchase the service as such a huge amount is that they are expected to use the data generated from it for the cars that they are developing so that the cars can navigate themselves based on the data. The mapping service also expected to be available across multiple platforms.

With the deal went through successfully, Nokia is expected to concentrate on the bought over of Alcatel-Lucent which after this is finalized, it will make Nokia a world leading network technology and services business as well as licensing and innovation of Nokia Technologies as mentioned by Rajeev Suri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia.

HERE is reported to receive about $606 million USD and had an operating profit of $30.7 million USD during the first half of 2015. This is definitely is a good news as the service suffered a loss in 2014. According to the last year’s report, the service received about $1.07 billion USD and written off certain things out of goodwill which cost about $1.33 billion USD and thus the company made an operating loss of $1.36 billion.

Moving forward, Nokia is expected to design and license smartphones in 2016 as per the agreement with Microsoft.

Nokia HERE Mapping Service Sold for $3.07 Billion to German Auto Consortium

Audi/LG Introduce A Smartwatch Having Open webOS

A smartwatch was brought in by LG and Audi at the CES 2015, which caught the attention of public present at the expo.

It was believed that the device would use Android Wear as an operating system, but the smartwatch is powered by an open webOS of LG.

Audi has been advertising the smartwatch as a device that will enable the user to control automobile of Audi. Like, the watch will be able to remotely unlock the Audi’s doors. A list of icons of applications based on User Interface of LG smartphone can be opened by a button located at the center.

A dialer and many other applications are included in the watch; apps like calendar, email, messaging, and music.

A fitness application, “LG Health W”, is installed in the smartwatch and other than that “Find My Phone” feature is included in the device which helps the user to locate its lost mobile.

The webOS was first introduced in the market six years ago but finally it has gained the popularity at CES 2015. The operating system got well known at the ceremony due to its presence in the watch.

In 2013, webOS was purchased by LG from HP; for the first time LG displayed its newly bought OS on smart TVs in the CES 2014. The company unveiled its new webOS 2.0 on its new smart TVs at CES 2015.

The LG webOS smartwatch has a support for third-party applications and consists of cellular capabilities which make it usable without any smartphone.

Audi/LG Introduce A Smartwatch Having Open webOS

Watch Audi’s self-driving car RS 7 run a lap at 150mph on an FI track in Germany

Google’s self-driving cars have been hogging attention since quite some time as they are being tested on the road. They had covered almost 700,000 autonomous miles by April this year. Audi doesn’t seem to be far behind. Audi’s RS 7 driverless car perfectly ran the Formula One track in Germany recently during the DTM season finale.

The Audi RS 7 nicknamed “Bobby” looked like any other racing car that completed a perfect lap at racing speed on the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim, Germany. However, the big difference was that the Audi RS 7 was running without a driver.

Audi’s RS 7 piloted driving concept ran the demo lap at 149mph, driven with perfect accuracy and precision only by software. The RS 7 is a 560 horsepower car perfectly took 6 straightways and 17 turns, completing the lap in about 2 minutes, guided by a combination of GPS, 3D cameras, laser scanners, radio transmitters, radar sensors and Wi-Fi.

“The top performance by the Audi RS 7 today substantiates the skills of our development team with regard to piloted driving at Audi,” said Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Board Member for Technical Development at Audi. “The derivations from series production, particularly in terms of precision and performance, are of great value for our further development steps.”

However, since actual driving conditions on the road are a lot different than the conditions on the empty race track, one wonders whether such a self-driving car would become successful commercially. But according to the company, “Piloted driving will help relieve the strain of driving and provide greater safety in road traffic while also solving infrastructural traffic problems.”

Watch the Audi RS 7 self-driving car inaction at the Hockenheim track:

Source: Audi

Watch Audi’s self-driving car RS 7 run a lap at 150mph on an FI track in Germany

LG makes an official declaration for support of Android Auto hardware

Last week at the Google I/O 2014 event, the search giant made a big announcement bringing new tech Android Auto into action that brings an whole together new driving experience. Many big automotive and tech giants have joined hands to support this feature thereby creating an Open Automotive Alliance for the same. Korean tech giant LG has also been a part of this and has officially announced its support for the hardware of the tech. this means that by 2015, we could see a wide range of products ranging from car audio systems to navigation units. Android Auto cars are expected to hit the markets next year 2015 and just few days back we saw automotive giant Volvo making announcement of its Android Auto based car that is to arrive in October.

Lets see how things shape out ahead as every one of us would surely be excited to see this tech being brought to cars very soon. Other car manufacturers like Audi and many more has also openly declared their support for the tech.

LG makes an official declaration for support of Android Auto hardware

Volvo to unveil its Android Auto based car in October

Two days back at the Google I/O event, Google went out announcing many of its new ventures, Android Auto being one of them. Android Auto is Google’s interface that turns your car’s dashboard into a smartphone that brings almost everything that you can do with your smartphone will now be available on your cars dashboard. You can check our detailed review for Android Auto.

However, many big car manufacturer’s are popping their eyes out on this beautifully car-embedded tech and have officially announced their support for the project and the Open Automotive Alliance is an example of this. Earlier automotive giant Audi has announced the support for Android Auto and now Volvo has went out announcing it officially with its first car, XC90, featuring Android Auto. The car could be shown off in October and will officially make its way to the markets by 2015.

Android Auto enables a voice based assistance getting you with almost any information at the “drop of hat”. This is similar to the voice based Google Now. With such a useful features and stunning technology many automobile manufacturer’s are expected to bring this feature in their vehicles making navigation much more easy and convenient. We wish to see the Android Auto vehicles soon.

Volvo to unveil its Android Auto based car in October