Rare is the day when you see Mercedes-Benz,->ke187 BMW,->ke178 and Audi->ke14 in agreement over something. It’s even rarer when all three companies pool their resources together for what they perceive to be “the better good” for the auto industry. And yet, somehow, the improbable has happened. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi have all joined forces to acquire Nokia’s mapping service, otherwise known as HERE, for a price of around €2.55 billion, or about $2.77 billion based on current exchange rates. Negotiations among the parties involved began in earnest back in August 2015 shortly after Nokia announced that it was putting the service up for sale.

The HERE mapping service supplies four out of five vehicles in the industry and is long-standing relationships with clients like Samsung, Microsoft, Bing, Amazon and Garmin. Simply put, HERE is the unquestioned market leader of this particular type of service so when Nokia put it up for sale, the three German automakers immediately pounced on the opening out of fear that a tech giant would make a play for the service and immediately monopolize the in-car mapping corner.

Reports indicate that Uber was one of the biggest competitors for the service with other unnamed parties also involved.

In the end, the trio of German brands was chosen as the buyers for HERE and the three companies have already said that other automakers are welcome to join in on the unconventional consortium to ensure that the platform remains in the auto industry.

There’s no word yet on whether other automakers are willing to join in on the ownership of HERE, but if there are, details should arrive sooner than later.

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Why it matters

As surprising as it was to see Mercedes, BMW, and Audi forge this unlikely partnership, it makes sense the more you think about it. Obviously, the three companies benefit from acquiring the HERE mapping service. But more than that, keeping the technology away from an “outside” ensures that, among other things, the development of autonomous vehicles isn’t disrupted.

The kinds of high-precision digital maps that HERE provides are becoming increasingly important, especially with a lot of automakers preparing their own autonomous driving technologies. A lot of companies use the HERE mapping service to accomplish this goal since the platform’s wealth of real-time information provides a strong foundation for the development of self-driving technology. In turn, this information can be shared through cloud technology and spread to all other vehicles using the same service, regardless of their make and model.

It’s a streamlined process that helps a lot of automakers and it’s one of the things that Mercedes, BMW, and Audi sought to protect when they decided to band together to purchase the HERE mapping service from Nokia.