HERE Sucks Data From Cars To Power Traffic Services

Digital map maker HERE has revealed a set of traffic services which pull data from a car’s sensors, the company’s location services and vehicles from BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen.

This collection of data will be used to supply drivers with information on live road conditions, traffic jams, accidents, and hazards such a slippery roads or fog and temporary speed limits. This marks an evolution from data being simply provided to drivers through GPS and data harvested from a connected device, by effectively crowdsourcing data from other sources.

Big data driving

The services, HERE’s Real-Time Traffic, Hazard Warnings, Road Signs, and On-Street Parking, are all derived from the HERE Open Location Platform which ingests data from each vehicle it is used in and mixes it with location and third-party information for other cars, devices, and infrastructure.

This data is then analysed and distributed back to the cars to provide a more detailed view of the road and routes individual cars are travelling on.

“HERE believes that industry collaboration is essential to address the major challenges faced by road users everywhere. What we are seeing today is the technology and automotive industries coming together to create services that will elevate the driving experience for billions,” said HERE CEO Edzard Overbeek.

“This is also an important milestone for our Open Location Platform, which is ready to serve as the nerve center for future autonomous vehicles, smart cities and intelligent transportation systems.”

Despite the completion between Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen in various segments of the automotive market, the three companies will share data harvested from the brakes, windshield wipers, tires and other components of their vehicles, with HERE noting it plans to add more car makers into the mix.

Given HERE was bought from Nokia by a trio of German vehicle manufacturers, VW Group, Daimler and BMW, it is not surprising to see more integration of car data with navigation systems.

Such an approach, often referred to as sensor fusion, is the keystone of driverless cars and autonomous systems that the likes of Google and, allegedly, Apple are working on.

With this in mind, such collaborations between technology companies and multiple rival car firms are highly likely to increase.

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