With a desire not to become the Kodak of the portable device world and fade into obscurity, Nokia is looking at new fronts to invest in sustainable development. Probably seeing how other technology giants are supporting the connected, autonomous car idea, now they are too, through the creation of a $100 (€71.8) million fund that has the sole purpose of sniffing out and supporting companies already at work on it.

The company won’t be running the fund by itself directly, enlisting the help of their venture capital branch, Nokia Growth Partners, or NGP.

However, Nokia is not a complete stranger to this area of tech, as it has been working on its own Google-style mapping and “location intelligence for connected vehicles through HERE” for a few years.

The boss of the HERE program, Michael Halbherr, explained that “NGP’s Connected Car fund underscores that connectivity is rapidly reshaping what is possible in the car environment. We believe that connected cars equipped with precise location awareness and sensor data can become powerful devices capable of helping drivers make sense of the world around them.”

The first video posted below shows how the process of radar-mapping streets is done; it’s different to the Google approach.

By Andrei Nedelea

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