HERE, automakers team up to share data on traffic conditions

Zenrin

25/09/2016 23:00

* New services will warn drivers of hazards miles ahead 
    * Millions of vehicles expected to contribute data by 
end-2018 
    * Real-time road data essential for driverless vehicles 
 
    By Eric Auchard 
    LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - German digital map maker HERE 
will introduce a new set of traffic services this week that 
allows drivers to see for themselves what live road conditions 
are like miles ahead using data from competing automakers, an 
industry first. 
    The Berlin-based company, owned by Germany's three premium 
automakers, will provide four services in which drivers share 
detailed video views of traffic jams or accidents, potential 
road hazards like fog or slippery streets, traffic signs 
including temporary speed limits and on-street parking. 
    BMW  BMWG.DE , Daimler  DAIGn.DE  and Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE  
will all contribute data to the service, making their first big 
collaboration since they bought HERE for 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 
billion) late last year from mobile equipment maker Nokia 
 NOK1V.HE  of Finland.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N10E0BP 
    Other automakers are expected to join the project later and 
contribute data from their vehicles, HERE said. 
    The new live traffic services are set to hit the road in the 
first half of 2017, HERE said on Monday before the opening of 
this week's Paris Motor Show. 
    Hundreds of thousands of vehicles from the three German 
automakers are set to begin feeding visual data into the HERE 
system supplying these services, with millions of vehicles  
expected to contribute live traffic feeds by the end of 2018, 
HERE said. 
    "You have competing brands which are putting their data 
together to create very unique services which were not possible 
before," Bruno Bourguet, HERE's global head of sales, said in an 
interview. 
    Data collected from vehicles participating in the network, 
drawn from brakes, windshield wipers, headlights, location 
systems, cameras and other sensors, are translated into alerts 
on driver dashboards using the HERE services. 
    Collecting sophisticated data from millions of cars on the 
road promises to give HERE a substantial lead over technology 
rivals such as Google  GOOGL.O , Apple  AAPL.O , Tesla  TSLA.O  
and TomTom  TOM2.AS , which have access to data from far fewer 
vehicles to collect so-called crowd-sourced data, analysts say. 
    "Crowd-sourced data is crucial for live traffic/maps and the 
size of the user base will be key to differentiation," UBS said 
in a recent report.  
    As other automakers contribute data for these services, an 
increasingly comprehensive view of road conditions around the 
world will be built to aid human drivers and, eventually, 
computer systems for autonomous cars, for which real-time road 
data is a pre-condition for replacing human drivers. 
    To date, efforts to realise the potential for connected cars 
have relied on efforts by individual car makers or technology 
suppliers, with much of the traffic data collected confined to 
very limited roads or city-level projects. 
    HERE, which provides location data to carmakers, businesses 
and consumer mobile apps, plans to offer live traffic data to 
the auto industry and other businesses needing more than static 
maps for new connected car services, including municipalities, 
road authorities, smartphone makers or mobile app developers. 
($1 = 0.8913 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Adrian Croft) 
 ((eric.auchard@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1235; Reuters 
Messaging: eric.auchard.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: AUTOS CONNECTED/