Here and Mobileye, both leaders in providing technologies for intelligent vehicles, have announced plans for a strategic partnership that links their respective autonomous driving technologies into an enhanced industry-leading offering for auto makers.
The partnership will combine Mobileye’s developments in computer vision and analysis for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) with Here’s cloud-based location platform services. In parallel, the two companies also intend to explore other opportunities where their products and services are complementary to further support automotive companies in advancing their autonomous driving and mobility strategies generally.
The two companies intend to pursue three main collaborative initiatives:
Mobileye’s Roadbook will be integrated as a data layer in Here’s HD live map, which is the company’s real-time cloud service for partially, highly and fully automated vehicles. The Roadbook information will provide an important additional layer of real-time contextual awareness by gathering landmark and roadway information to assist in making a vehicle more aware of, and better able to react to, its surroundings, as well as allow for more accurate vehicle positioning on the road; Mobileye will use the Here open location platform for the ingestion and processing of raw sensor and observation data, collectively known as road segment data (RSD), and the creation and dynamic maintenance of its Roadbook products; Here will use RSD, as well as the Global Roadbook (GLRB), collected and aggregated from certain vehicle brands equipped with Mobileye technology to support change detection and the maintenance of its HD live map. Detecting changes in the real world and adjusting the map accordingly is critically important for automated vehicles to plan better driving strategies. With more sensor data available from car manufacturers equipped with Mobileye’s road experience management (REM) technology, the HD live map will be updated even more quickly.
“We are building a state-of-the-art global HD map that is becoming the standard for autonomous driving and other IoT [Internet of Things] applications that need precise location-based information and services,” explained Edzard Overbeek, CEO of Here. “We are rapidly expanding this capability and I am very pleased that we can accelerate that work with Mobileye, a strategic partner which shares our view of where the automotive and other industries are going.”
Professor Amnon Shashua, chairman and CTO of Mobileye, commented, “High-definition mapping is a key enabler for autonomous driving. Our REM technology, enabling crowd-sourced data extraction, together with the backend processing of the Roadbook combined with Here’s HD live map is critical to ensure dynamic, near-real-time updates. We are pleased to work with Here to create a ‘world HD-map’ standard, leveraging the combined fleet size of certain vehicle brands initially, with the objective of eventually launching an industry wide-initiative.”
