The HERE mapping business needs additional investments to make it viable for use as a navigation tool for self-driving cars. Having more carmakers join the consortium will potentially spread the cost across more members and could improve the volume of live traffic information being fed to the map from vehicles on the road.
Last week carmakers Renault-Nissan (RENA.PA), and supplier Continental (CONG.DE) said they were considering taking a stake in the HERE mapping consortium.
Intelligent mapping systems like HERE’s are the basis on which self-driving cars, linked to wireless networks, can perform functions such as recalculating a route to the nearest electric charging station or around a traffic jam or accident.