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Bosch considers stake in digital mapping company HERE

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Auto supplier Bosch [ROBG.UL] said on Friday it was in talks with high-definition digital maps company HERE, exploring whether to take a stake.

"It is conceivable," a spokesman told Reuters, adding that taking a financial stake in HERE, a company controlled by a consortium of BMW Daimler and Volkswagen may not be the outcome of the talks.

The aim of the talks was to ensure that Bosch can continue to offer services to customers of HERE.

In July last year Dutch mapmaker TomTom and Bosch deepened a partnership on high-definition maps to refine the technology crucial for autonomous driving.

Earlier this week Daimler confirmed its was in talks with Amazon.com and Microsoft about taking a minority stake in HERE.

Germany's luxury carmakers including Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen's Audi division and BMW bought HERE for 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) from Nokia last year to create an alternative digital mapping business to Google.

Intelligent mapping systems supply information to control self-driving cars, which are equipped with street-scanning sensors to measure traffic and road conditions. This location data can in turn be shared with other map users.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor, editing by Andreas Cremer and David Evans)