【鸭脖官方网】Uber为什么要砸30亿重金买诺基亚地图

Ride-hailing company Uber is willing to pay up to $3 billion for HERE, a Nokia-owned mapping service that competes with Google Maps, the New York Times reports.据《纽约时报》报导，租车服务公司Uber无意以30亿美元并购诺基亚旗下的地图服务HERE，后者与谷歌地图仍然在竞争。Nokia, a Finnish company you probably best know for itstrademark and stubbornly infectious ringtone, is undergoing a highly transformative shift. Once a leading smartphone maker, it’s now focusing networking hardware business. The biggest sign of that shift: Nokia sold its handset division to Microsoft for more than $7 billion last year. So it makes sense for Nokia to want to unload its mapping unit, for which it could earn a pretty penny while also increasing the company’s focus.芬兰公司诺基亚留下人们深达的印象，有可能是它的商标和熟知的手机铃声。该公司正在经历大规模的转型，这家曾多次的手机巨头如今于是以专心于网络硬件业务。

仅次于转型标志是，公司在去年以70亿美元的价格将手机部门卖给了微软公司。所以，诺基亚想出售地图部门也不难理解，这不仅能给公司带给一大笔资金，还能提升公司的专心度。But why would Uber want a mapping company? Two reasons.不过Uber为何想要卖一家地图公司？原因有二。Uber’s backend systems are powered by Google Maps. When you load up Uber’s app and drop a pin for a pickup, that’s Google Maps. When your driver is following GPS directions to your destination, that’s Google Maps too. Uber’s recent moves into shipping packages rather than people signal it’s interested in becoming more of a full-on logistics company, akin more to UPS than your local yellow cab service. For Uber, having its own mapping unit would reduce its dependence on another company — Google — while it continues to evolve.Uber的后台系统由谷歌地图反对。

当你读取Uber应用于，并标明下车地点时，用的就是谷歌地图。当你的司机按照GPS命令前往目的地时，用的也是谷歌地图。Uber最近将焦点改向寄送包覆而不是乘客，反映出有他们有兴趣沦为一家全方位的物流公司——类似于UPS那种，而不是一家出租车公司。

对Uber而言，享有自己的地图部门，可以让公司在大大演进发展的同时，增加对谷歌的倚赖。There’s another factor at play here, too. Uber executives haven’t been shy about their fondness for driverless cars; the company is partnering with Carnegie Mellon University to work on the technology. After all, robots don’t strike for higher wages, nor do they assault passengers.还有另一个因素是：Uber的高管从来不名讳他们对自动驾驶汽车的热衷。公司于是以与卡耐基梅隆大学合作研发这项技术。却是，机器是会为了索取更高薪水而大罢工的，它们也会打伤乘客。

Driverless cars need two things to work. The first is on-car sensors, which constantly monitor for changing road conditions that require an immediate response, like pedestrians and stop signs. The second is maps, which tell the car where to go on a bigger scale. For driverless cars to be feasible, the maps that power them have to be updated constantly. Imagine a driverless car doesn’t know that construction means a bridge is out, for instance: Dead end. Acquiring HERE, then, would help Uber more quickly realize a future where driverless cars get us all from A to B without us batting an eyelash.无人驾驶汽车运营必不可少两样东西。一样是车载感应器，它能动态监控行人或行驶信号等必须立刻反应的路况。另外一样则是地图，它能纵览全局，告诉他汽车该回头哪条路。要使无人驾驶汽车沦为现实，后末端反对的地图必须大大地改版。

设想一下，假如一辆无人驾驶汽车不告诉前方有座桥早已无法回头了，就不会走出死路。并购HERE以后，Uber就能更慢地构建自动驾驶汽车的未来，人们不用双眼一眨不乖地盯着路况就能从A地回到B地了。

本文来源：鸭脖官方网站-www.dreamresearchlab.com