What's happening Here? A 'reality index'. Mapmaker's new owners want to share data

Radar and cameras now used for cruise control and blind-spot monitoring could detect open parking spaces in real time and beam that information to the cloud. Temperature sensors and automatic windshield wipers could deliver block-by-block weather updates better than any meteorologist's forecast.

This type of robust, real-time status report is what some technology visionaries call a "reality index," and this idea -- to turn ordinary cars into mobile windows on the world around them -- is one of the big reasons Audi, BMW and Daimler joined forces this year to buy the mapping company Here from Finnish telecom company Nokia.