Nokia unveils its connected car platform - Here Auto

Nokia takes the first of many planned steps into the connected car, launching an embedded infotainment and navigation system called Here Auto that reaches beyond the vehicle into the broader world of smartphone apps.

After years of being the auto industry’s mapmaker, Nokia on Friday announced its intention to become a much bigger technological force in the vehicle. Nokia took the wraps off of Here Auto, an embedded infotainment and connected car system, which it hopes to sell to the world’s car manufacturers.

Nokia head of location and of commerce and Here EVP Michael Halbherr – who will be speaking at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in October — recently shared the Finnish phone maker’s broader connected car vision, which will eventually include autonomous driving and integrating the vehicle into future “smart city” networks. Today’s release of Here Auto is its first step down that path.

It’s hardly the self-driving car, but it’s Nokia entry into the growing field of internet-linked entertainment and navigation systems. What sets Nokia’s apart is its strong ties back to the cloud and Nokia’s core smartphone applications. According to Here VP of Connected Car Floris Van-De-Klashorst, in-dash infotainment systems have remained a throwback in a world of increasingly sophisticated connected devices. Here Auto, he claimed, is an attempt to replicate the same experience we get out of smartphones and tablets in the vehicle dashboard.

Read More