Digital maps have become an essential tool in various aspects of modern life. Cars need them to navigate safely and efficiently; logistics companies use them to deliver over 5,000 parcels every second globally; and emergency services use them to precisely track first responders.
Given their far-reaching utility, the market for digital maps and location technology is expanding at a rapid rate. According to our analysis, drawing on data from Gartner, S&P Global, ABI, and others, the market is currently valued at around USD 16 to 17 billion. In the next five years, it is predicted to nearly double in value, with the Asia Pacific region emerging as a significant growth driver.
There are two main reasons for this projected acceleration. One relates to technology. Businesses across the Asia Pacific are generating ever larger quantities of location data, while new software tools are helping them make use of it. The other reason has to do with motivation.
Several market trends – from vehicle electrification to autonomous driving, to the clamour for greater supply chain visibility and sustainability – are compelling businesses to integrate location technology into their business systems, operations and applications.
For Asia’s map creators, the sector growth represents an exciting and enormous opportunity, but also a significant engineering challenge. The abundance of spatial data generated by various devices provides fuel for creating real-time digital maps with increasing detail.
However, refining it all into valuable map information is a complex task not least because it comes in so many forms, ranging from overhead imagery and street observations to Internet of Things (IoT) data and traffic information. More than ever, mapmaking is an exercise in big data management.
Fortunately, map creators are rising to the challenge with new technologies and approaches that are transforming the way digital maps are produced, accessed and used.
AI and automation accelerate mapmaking
One key area of investment is in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies. To keep pace with the rapid changes happening in the world, map creators are deploying AI models to help with many of the fundamentals of mapmaking, such as spotting road changes, updating speed limits, and predicting traffic.
HERE Technologies’ new-generation mapping technology, UniMap, for example, has trained models to conflate and semantically align different types of data into a single, consistent view of the world. This is a hard problem to solve and involves applying thousands of validation rules to ensure the quality and integrity of the map.
Despite the rapid progress around AI and automation, there will always be human input and creativity needed to continuously push the boundaries of mapmaking – not least in training the AI models themselves.
Faster product creation
With map data stored in a unified map catalogue, businesses can easily select and combine the map information they need for a particular use case.
For example, an automaker building a navigation system could start with standard road information and then add parking information, electric charging points, 3D visuals and high-definition lane information.
Moreover, it can choose data for only the geographies it needs. We see the industry moving to a point where multi-layered products like this can be compiled in just a few hours.
Fresher than ever
Finally, we see a continuation of the trend towards ever more up-to-date and, ultimately, real-time maps. As map creators take advantage of live data from vehicles and IoT devices in the mapmaking process, digital maps will capture the present physical reality like never before.
In this respect, changes detected in the physical reality are visible on the map within 24 hours, with some edits taking just minutes or seconds.
The way maps are accessed will also change. Updates on demand can be streamed on the map, much like Netflix does for TV and film. This is in contrast to the industry’s traditional approach of processing and delivering business data in batches every month or quarter. This kind of map freshness represents a big leap forward for any business building location data applications.
Serving up a new era of mapmaking
Many emerging applications need deep access to location technology. Automotive markets across Asia are poised for growth. Countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan have become major players in the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) – such as Baidu, Hyundai, and Toyota.
Many governments in the region are also actively supporting the development of AVs and EVs through policies and incentives designed to encourage the growth of this industry. As such, connected vehicles need access to a reliable view of what’s happening around them and beyond the vantage point of their sensors.
At the same time, logistics companies also need access to an up-to-date representation of the world so they can quickly react to unexpected events in the supply chain.
To meet these needs, map creators in Asia Pacific are stepping up the plate and introducing exciting new technologies and approaches to deliver fresh and accurate digital mapping that will become the new standard for mapmaking in the future.
Note: This is a guest blog by Michael Cheong, Senior Director and Head of Global Spatial Data Ingestion & Analytics for Platform Foundation, HERE Technologies.
