TWO Chinese firms and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC have agreed to buy a 10 percent stake in a digital mapping company controlled by Germany’s leading carmakers to help them develop self-driving cars.

    Shenzhen-listed digital mapping company NavInfo Co., Internet group Tencent Holdings and the Singapore fund will invest in mapping firm HERE under a deal announced Tuesday.

    China is pushing the development of electric and autonomous cars and has made several high-profile investments in high tech companies in Europe.

    German carmakers Audi, BMW and Daimler will reduce their combined ownership of HERE by 10 percent, HERE and the buyers said in a statement.

    China is on track to overtake the United States as the largest market for premium cars, a step which forces the German manufacturers to find alliances with local players in Asia to help them expand new services such as autonomous driving.

    HERE and the Chinese consortium did not disclose financial details of the deal, which they expect to close in 2017.

    Germany’s luxury carmakers bought HERE from Nokia for 2.55 billion euros (US$2.6 billion) last year to create a platform for developing self-driving cars and to secure their access to intelligent high-precision mapping systems.

    The German carmakers have developed their own prototype autonomous vehicles and wanted to cut their dependence on mapping data from software giant Google which has also developed a self-driving vehicle.

    HERE needs capital to expand its network of high-precision maps quickly, and has been in discussion with potential partners including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Bosch.

    Self-driving cars need such maps to navigate, and use sensors to create services such as a system for monitoring road conditions and finding parking spaces by using vehicle-mounted cameras to scan the road ahead.

    China has taken an interest in automotive technology investments to help develop its autonomous and self driving car know-how.

    Earlier this month, Chinese mobile operating systems company Thunder Software Technology Co. agreed to acquire Finnish automotive software firm Rightware for 64 million euros.

    Future Mobility, a carmaker controlled by Tencent, has poached autonomous driving personnel from Google, Daimler and BMW in the race to make self-driving cars. (SD-Agencies)