In order to believe that our generation will live to see the day when major tech companies, cell phone makers, search engine giants and automotive mammoths shake their hands and get involved in common projects, you had to be a true visionary and perhaps a futurologist 10 or 20 years ago. And yet, here we are living what our parents (and us included) were just watching in awe in science – fiction movies: a global tendency towards the development of smart cars and self driving vehicles promoted not only by car manufacturers, but by powerful tech companies you wouldn’t normally associate with the automotive industry. This year started with the news coming from Google, who partnered up with General Motors, Audi, Honda and Hyundai in order to bring the Android operating system to their cars starting with 2014. The newly formed Open Automotive Alliance set as its primary goal to

drive innovation, and make technology in the car safer and more intuitive for everyone

But Google does not stop here with its interest in smart cars and self – driving vehicles, as Google’s self – driving car has been already tested on public roads in California last year, gathering around 30,000 miles of on-road self driving experiments.

The fund will invest in promising auto tech and local services companies in collaboration with HERE, a Nokia company, to grow the ecosystem around HERE’s mapping and location products and services.

The stakes are high in the market of smart cars and self – driving vehicles: very recently, Volvo announced yesterday they will start testing their own self – driving cars on the public roads of Gothenburg, Sweden, as a part of their complex project of delivering self – driving Volvo cars in the immediate future, following the examples of Nissan, Tesla Motors, Toyota, Mercedes – Benz and other major players in the automotive industry.