In present times location information and accuracy is steadily improving with the arrival of innovative mapping solutions. Geospatial technology is a strategic scientific finding, which has moved the possibilities of humankind to a brand-new level. Unlike ordinary spatial data, geospatial technology innovations have allowed us to determine the exact location of an object or person on our planet. Today they have been applied in multiple spheres. Its real world applications are incorporated in almost any sector, industry, or research where location is important.
Location Intelligence revolutionizing the automobile industry
In recent years, location intelligence has become a game-changer in several aspect of business in almost every field, from traffic monitoring, real estate, manufacturing and so on. It can be used to enhance and equalize multiple business decisions. Location analysis also accelerates the decision-making process for organizations.
Leen Balcaen, Vice President of Product Management at HERE Technologies shared in an exclusive conversation with Geospatial World “It’s an exciting time. We’ve been working with our automotive partners for over 40 years on the development of the next generation of mapping and location technology. Location intelligence is relied upon even more as vehicles are connected, electric, automated and enabled by software.”
Today localization is a critical capability for autonomous vehicles as it makes it possible to display their location within centimeters in a map. This heightened accuracy enables a self-driving car to comprehend its surroundings and establish a great sense of the road and lane structures. Location data enriched tools have been playing an integral role in improving the customer experience in this sector.
HERE Technologies introduces a new mapping technology ‘UniMap’
Digital maps just took a huge leap forward recently with the unveiling of HERE Technologies new industry offering – ‘UniMap’. This is a highly automated mapping technology that enables rapid creation of digital maps and location products. HERE has been developing the technology over the last three years in close collaboration with automotive groups including BMW Group. UniMap is primed for a rollout to selected customers in 2023 ahead of coming fully online for all HERE customers by 2024.
Leen Balcaen shared exciting details about UniMap with Geospatial World as she explained that this product “is designed to deliver unmatched levels of map freshness, quality and coverage.” “It is the computing architecture and near real-time data model that powers our location platform. It creates a unified pipeline of spatial data that delivers users a high quality and accurate digital representation of the real world, which can support a variety of urban mobility use cases” she added in.
She further explained that “when we detect a change in the physical reality, that change becomes visible in the map within 24 hours and our customers can consume fresh map content in near real-time. Applying that to the urban mobility sector, city and infrastructure planners will be able to obtain accurate data more quickly than before. Moreover, they can also bring in their own data to easily create customized maps and services that will help solve location-related problems unique to their cities.”
Balcaen then shared usage instances as she said “we have automakers using SD maps and HERE location services for EV routing applications and HD maps for automated vehicle functions. We have ridesharing companies using their own data sources to build more efficient routing algorithms for drop-off/pick-up, and a commercial fleet operator creating an application that reduces idle time by integrating tour planning with truck restrictions and real-time traffic services. The UniMap architecture allows HERE to ingest various data sources – car sensor data, aerial, satellite, street level-imagery and more – that are conflated and run against AI/ML to give semantic relationships between objects and high levels of confidence in the accuracy of every physical location.”
She also explained the sense of scale as she shared that “UniMap uses AI models to automate the processing of 500 million kilometers of vehicle probe and sensor data every hour, to extract map features such as 2D and 3D positioning of road signs, to validate speed limits and to build missing road geometry.”
Enabling customers to create their private maps
The UniMap technology is geared to produce the entire HERE map as well as enable customers to rapidly create their own private maps and customized location services.
Leen Balcaen shared more on this aspect as she shared “we believe that every enterprise will want its own private map, leveraging its own spatial data at scale. HERE Workspace allows users to build and scale location-based products, services and applications in a secure cloud environment”. Balcaen further added in that “UniMap facilitates the on boarding and use of third-party maps, providing full compatibility with other map data, such that customers can mix their own data with HERE map data sets to create their own products in just hours.”
HERE Workspace provides users with the low and high code tools, alongside a full location data and services technology stack, to build custom software services. Dedicated low-code templates and a drag-and-drop workflow editor enable customers to automate the ingestion of data as well as conflate, validate and publish map content for their own private use – taking full advantage of HERE’s advanced mapmaking capabilities and powerful location services and Software Development Kits (SDKs).
Differentiated location search availability
Recently HERE Technologies has also announced a new platform capability available for global businesses to uniquely customize the search outcomes their users receive by using their own places of interest data. Powered by HERE Workspace and HERE Search, customers can add private data into the map and search function, creating brand-specific search outcomes and distinct end user experiences.
The HERE Map includes more than 140 million points of interest (POIs), and now HERE customers can include additional private POIs that will be included in end-user search results.
Discussing this offering Leen Balcaen shared how users can enhance their productivity by using this newly launched platform. She shared “users can customize HERE RESTful APIs with their data to create tailored business services. Fleet operators can enhance the navigation experience using their data on top of the HERE map with configurable APIs, such as HERE Geocoding & Search. The HERE SDK enables the integration of a custom map or location service into a client application.”
Better data privacy with on-premise location services
HERE Technologies, has recently released one more industry offering by empowering their customers and partners with further power to control their user data through self-hosting HERE Location Services. The HERE on-premise (on-prem) service allows customers and partners to install and run HERE Location Services software directly on their servers or cloud environment, creating another level of privacy and security to interact with sensitive end-user data.
The HERE software gives companies more control over performance, data security and monetization of their user data and the HERE Location Services Self-Hosted includes core services that solve complex business functions like providing real-time and historical traffic flow and incident information, as well as map tiles with traffic overlays through the HERE Traffic offering, generating driving time and distance and a graphical representation of the route on top of the HERE map across transportation modes through the HERE Routing offering, monitoring the mobile assets entering or leaving certain geographic areas, such as a logistics hub through the HERE Geofencing offering and so on.
Balcaen added in how the security of such sensitive end-user data is being ensured for the users of the on-prem service. “HERE keeps Information Security at the forefront of our services. HERE has General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) attestation, on top of ISO27701 and ISO27018 accreditation. As an EU-based company, we uphold our Privacy Charter and have deeply established data security, privacy and trust teams” she informed.
“HERE also works with customers to deploy our services in their preferred environment. The largest companies utilize a mix of on-prem, public cloud and hybrid solutions, so that they have high quality data and services with built in privacy, security, flexibility and data customization, as well as complete ownership over their user data” pointed out Balcaen.
Technology innovations leading to better industry solutions
The term “innovate” originating from the Latin verb innovare, literally means to renew and reform. Viewed in a business context, innovation follows the path of developing and administering fresh, new ideas to reinvent, improve or replace business processes. Innovation is definitely a key driver for long-term industrial growth.
The present times embracing a post pandemic era has brought in several challenges that society and industrial pursuits have never been exposed to. In response, geospatial technologies are introducing many innovations that are transforming the ways businesses perform and are heralding in new business opportunities. Technological Innovations from the geo-realm are leading to the emergence of a hyper-connected future enabled by many new tech initiatives engulfing the world in present times.
The three innovative technology solutions announced by HERE Technologies at the beginning of 2023 are certainly very useful for the geo-user community embracing various related industry sectors.
