Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have just signed the deal of the century with tech giants Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Intel and Qualcomm, in order to accelerate the development of the infrastructure necessary for the autonomous cars.
The three grand premium car makers of Germany have made a pact with the mobile network telecoms to fight new rivals coming out of nowhere into the automotive world. Both Uber and Google are now working on autonomous mobility.
The new alliance, dubbed the ”5G Automotive Association”, will “develop, test and promote communications solutions, support standardization and accelerate commercial availability and global market penetration,” the founders said in a statement released today. The new 5G service is set to be 10 times faster than the current 4G service.
The plan promoted by the members of the alliance integrates the main transportation routes within the territory of Germany, but also 20 largest cities in the country. The 5G technology is currently in development, but mass-market upgrades to mobile networks are not expected before 2020.
Last year, Mercedes, BMW and Audi joined forces and bought the digital map maker Here for 2.8 billion Euros ($3.15 billion) from Nokia. This week, the three grands will introduce the system that allows drivers to see for themselves what road conditions are like miles ahead using live data provided by other vehicles.
