As part of Intel's plans to make major investments in driverless car tech, the chipmaker company is buying a stake in German startup Here.
Intel Buying Stake In Company Here
According to The Wall Street Journal, Intel Corp. is acquiring a 15 percent stake in Here International B.V. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Among the digital mapmaker's core shareholders are included Daimler AG, BMW AG, and Volkswagen AG's Audi unit. Intel will join them in developing navigation technology for autonomous driving cars.
According to CNET, Intel is planning to achieve a bigger spot in the self-driving car race. As part of this strategy, the Silicon Valley chipmaker has announced on Tuesday, Jan. 3, that it is buying a 15 percent stake in German digital mapping company Here. Details of the deal have been published on Intel's website.
Here is a mapping German startup that is developing autonomous positioning systems used in self-driving vehicles. Here was sold by Nokia to European automakers BMW, Audi, and Daimler and the Intel deal comes less than 18 months after that transaction.
Intel's Self-Driving Tech Plans
In November, during the Los Angeles Auto Show, Intel announced its plans to invest over the next two years more than $250 million into self-driving technologies in order to make fully driverless cars a reality. The Silicon Valley chipmaker aims to keep pace with top tech companies such as Uber, Tesla, and Google in developing the autonomous driving technology. Intel plans to put self-driving vehicles on the road by the year 2021 or even sooner.
Intel and Here said in a joint statement Tuesday that they will be working on developing together digital maps for "highly and fully automated driving." According to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, cars are becoming fast some of the most connected and intelligent devices in the world. And a high-definition, real-time representation of the physical world is among the most critical support elements for autonomous driving. More capable and powerful in-vehicle computer platforms are required in order to achieve this.
