After they were bought by BMW, Audi and Mercedes, Here Maps wanted to show their new owners it can compete with giants like Tom Tom. So they thought of harnessing real-time data generated by vehicles’ on-board sensors to create a live depiction of the road ahead.
Drivers will be able to access this through four services, which provide high quality information on traffic conditions, potential road hazards, traffic signs and on-street parking.
The goal is to ensure that drivers have more accurate and timely information, with which they can make better driving decisions.
Here plans to make the services commercially available to any customers both within and outside the automotive industry from the first half of 2017.
The advantage? Real-time services from Here will crowdsource the much richer data generated by sensors deeply embedded within the car. Here will start by sourcing sensor data from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars, with plans to later expand to include data from other brands.
This solutions will also support the automotive industry’s broader market introduction of advanced driver assisted systems (ADAS) and, later, autonomous driving solutions.
The HERE Open Location Platform will process vehicle-sourced data related to:
– Speed, direction and location of a vehicle
– Hard braking, as denoted by sharp deceleration
– Road construction, lane/road closures and traffic events such as accidents, as detected by the vehicle’s forward camera
– Hazard light usage
– Hazardous weather or road conditions, as determined for example by rain sensors, heavy use of windshield wipers, loss of tire traction or fog light usage
– Traffic sign information, including permanent and temporary speed limits, as detected by the car’s forward camera
