Nokia to invest $100m in smart car technology

Company is looking to expand into new fields after selling off mobile arm to Microsoft

Nokia Oyj, the remaining independent part of Nokia, plans to invest $100m in companies that develop smart in-car technologies.

The company, most renowned for its mobile phone business that it sold to Microsoft for $7.5bn last month, is looking at expanding into new fields, and these investments will be made to support the company's digital-map business, Bloomberg reports.

It will mean that the Finnish company will join the likes of Google, Salesforce and Atos as technology companies looking at introducing and investing in smart car technology. Nokia Growth Partners, the venture capital arm of the company, will run the investments.

"We're seeing innovation that's happening across the auto ecosystem through the combination of mobility and the internet," said Paul Asel, a partner at Nokia Growth Partners.

"The car is really becoming a platform like when the mobile handset became a smartphone and all the apps and services developed around that."

Car manufacturers like BMW, Renault and Toyota are embracing the new types of technologies.

Tablet-like devices connected to the car, social IT services, real-time traffic information and automation are some of the technologies being trialled and introduced.

Google has been testing driverless cars in the US, while Californian manufacturer Tesla is also considering adding the technology to its cars.