Daimler's Chief Executive told Reuters that a German auto maker consortium which controls the HERE digital mapping business is in talks with potential new members.
In August last year, German carmakers BMW, Audi and Mercedes, agreed to pay 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) to buy Nokia's high definition maps business, in a step to develop self-driving cars.
The deal closed in December and the German auto makers Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW started negotiations with new potential members, Zetsche said in an interview embargoed for Sunday. "If there are individual companies that are already raising their finger, then this is fast and pleasing. I do not think it will take very long until the first company gives a binding commitment to join," Zetsche said at a Mercedes-Benz driving event in Portugal. 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, and supplier Continental 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.
Talks with third parties only started in the past two months because the consortium waited until the deal closed before talking to other partners, Zetsche said. Having only three members in the consortium made negotiations to close the deal simpler, Zetsche said. "Interest will not only be limited to Renault-Nissan and Continental," Zetsche added.
Self-driving and connected car services could become a $50 billion market, analysts at Exane BNP Paribas have estimated. Germany's carmakers decided to club together to bid for the asset to accelerate plans for self-driving cars after Internet rival Alphabet unveiled a prototype autonomous vehicle.
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