Nokia Bell Labs will serve as Technology Partner to UK-based sailing team Alex Thomson Racing.
Skipper Alex Thomson, supported by his onshore team, will compete in the next Vendée Globe race, a 24,000-mile solo, non-stop unassisted sailing race around the world. The next Vendée Globe is scheduled to begin in November 2020.
The Vendée Globe race is often described as “the ultimate physical and psychological challenge” especially as the boats traverse the Southern Ocean.
Nokia Bell Labs said it will work alongside Thomson – and his IMOCA 60 race boat – to develop and test both existing and new cutting-edge technologies including augmented intelligence and wearables.
Nokia Chief Technology Officer and Bell Labs President, Marcus Weldon, said: “We are delighted to be working with Alex Thomson Racing to push the limits of what is possible, and pioneer breakthroughs in the seamless integration of human talent and technological performance, in extremely harsh and often remote environments, in a race against time.
“Alex Thomson Racing represents an important microcosm of the broader industrial IoT and mission-critical network focus of Nokia. This collaboration is another step toward realization of our Future X Network Vision, where human existence will be transformed in an era defined by the digitization and connection of everything and everyone with the goal of automating much of life, effectively creating time, by maximizing the efficiency of everything we do.”
