Nokia, FAW Group to use 5G to transform China’s automotive sector

Nokia has signed a strategic MoU with FAW Group, the Chinese state-owned automotive manufacturing company, to carry out joint research in smart connected cars, industrial IoT (IIoT), smart manufacturing and digital transformation.

Nokia will deploy a 5G trial network on FAW’s campus in Changchun, the capital of northeast China’s Jilin province, to support R&D in autonomous driving and connected car applications.

As well as the commercial 5G solution, Nokia will provide security, big data, cloud and 5G slicing technology to accelerate FAW’s digital transformation, according to a company statement.

In addition, Nokia will provide end-to-end system integration, helping FAW to implement smart manufacturing with automation solutions, such as autonomous AGVs, AR/VR machine vision, and AI-enhanced quality inspection.

FAW Group is one of the biggest automakers in China. Through collaboration with Nokia, the company intends to maintain its dominant position in the market by using digital technologies to enable autonomous driving, IoT and smart manufacturing.

FAW, together with eight automobile OEMs including Guangzhou Automobile Group and Dongfeng Motor Group, has recently acquired a combined 31.2% in Smart Connection Technology, the Internet of Vehicle unit of China Unicom.