President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order launching an investigation into the national security risks posed by US reliance on imported processed critical minerals and their derivative products. The Order directs the Secretary of Commerce to initiate a Section 232 investigation under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to... Read more →

Lotus Robotics, the intelligent driving arm of Lotus Technology, and HERE Technologies, a location data and technology company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop an advanced Highway Navigation Pilot solution that delivers Level 2+ (L2+) automated driving functions. The collaboration is focused on delivering a best-in-class L2+... Read more →

ICL, a global specialty minerals company, has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with Shenzhen Dynanonic Co., Ltd. to establish lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode active material (CAM) production in Europe, with an . A new facility at ICL's Sallent, Spain, site is currently in planning stages and will substantially... Read more →

HERE Technologies unveiled its latest artificial intelligence (AI) solution, the HERE AI Assistant. Designed to address the evolving needs of the automotive and transportation industries, this solution leverages multiple Generative AI Large Language Models (LLMs) to deliver natural language-powered, location-aware guidance. The HERE AI Assistant transforms personalized travel planning, providing... Read more →

Sofar announced that global shipping leader Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has deployed Sofar’s Wayfinder dynamic voyage optimization platform across its fleet to reduce emissions significantly. In a trial with 40 of its vessels, MOL Group found that Wayfinder reduces fuel consumption and emissions by an average of 6% per... Read more →

Epsilon Advanced Materials (EAM) finalized the acquisition from Johnson Matthey of a lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) cathode active material technology center in Moosburg, Germany. With the purchase, Mumbai-based EAM is poised to make India the first country in Asia outside of China to manufacture LFP cathode materials. Approximately 70% of cathode... Read more →

HERE Technologies announced a range of software solutions providing automakers with direct access to fresh map information tailored for Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). With vehicles requiring an increasing number of insights derived from map data to power their road safety, ADAS and automated driving... Read more →

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has developed and tested select chipset platforms that support NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) L1 signals. The initiative will help accelerate the adoption of NavIC and enhance the geo-location capabilities of mobile, automotive and the Internet of Things... Read more →

HERE Technologies, the location data and technology platform, announced the usage of the HERE HD Live Map onboard BMW’s new 7 Series with “BMW Personal Pilot” Level 3 highly automated driving function. This marks a key milestone in the companies’ longstanding collaboration on high-definition mapping for advanced driving assistance and... Read more →

HERE Technologies, a data and technology platform, has entered into a partnership with Eco-Movement, a provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging station data, to create faster, fresher, and more accurate charging experiences for EV drivers globally. Finding reliable charge points when you need them most can be a challenge for... Read more →

Researchers at the USGS Pacific and St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Centers have developed new technology that provides imagery of complex three-dimensional seafloor features with unprecedented accuracy and geolocation. Diagram of the SQUID-5 towed surface vehicle and the waterproof camera housings with labeled components. The camera mounting mechanism aligns... Read more →

A new study by a team from the University of Sydney and Geoscience Australia has mapped the concentration and distribution of lithium across Australian soil, providing crucial insights for identifying potential reserves in the country. An open-access paper on the work is published in the journal Earth System Science Data.... Read more →

GEM has been producing low-speed electric vehicles for more than 25 years and has sold more than 65,000 of them. LSVs are more than a golf cart—they are street legal on most roads posted 35 mph or less. Yet knowing where those roads are and where a GEM can take... Read more →

On the foundation of their 2021 collaboration agreement and of technical work achieved together over the past two years, Nouveau Monde Graphite and Caterpillar signed definitive agreements for Caterpillar to supply NMG’s Matawinie Mine with an integrated solution that covers a zero-exhaust emission fleet, supporting infrastructure, and service. Caterpillar is... Read more →

ZF has joined the Navigation Data Standard (NDS) Association. In this association, automotive manufacturers, suppliers, map providers, and developers of map-based applications and services are establishing a global standard for digital maps in Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) resolution formats. ZF will use the standard both for its... Read more →

SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, introduced two new LNP THERMOCOMP compounds that offer the potential to improve signal gain performance vs. ceramics in second-generation automotive global navigation satellite system (GNSS) antennas. The new products, LNP THERMOCOMP ZKC0CXXD compound and LNP THERMOCOMP ZKC0DXXD compound, help enable the design... Read more →

The US Department of State released the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on electric vehicle battery value chains signed by the United States on 13 December 2022, during the Africa Leaders Summit. Through this MOU, the United States will support the commitment between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and... Read more →

Volvo Cars and its strategic affiliate Polestar will be the first car makers to bring Google’s HD map technology into cars, starting with the recently unveiled Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3. By integrating Google’s HD map, the automakers will be able to bring together data from the vehicle sensor sets... Read more →

HERE Technologies announced the BMW Group is utilizing the HERE HD Live Map, HERE’s high-definition map, to enable hands-free driving in the United States and Canada. HERE is one of the world’s first companies to provide high-definition maps for Level 2+ automated driving capabilities in series production vehicles. This is... Read more →

Jaguar Land Rover is offering customers accurate and precise navigation even in the most remote locations, by becoming the first automotive manufacturer to integrate what3words global location technology into vehicles already on the road through a software-over-the-air (SOTA) update. what3words has divided the globe into a grid of 3m x... Read more →

Geespace, a wholly owned subsidiary of Geely Technology Group and China’s first privately owned developer, operator, and mass producer of low-orbit commercial satellites, has successfully launched its first nine satellites into low earth orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Rendering of Geely Future Mobility Constellation Geespace’s terrestrial base station... Read more →

Bosch is expanding its expertise in automated driving and strengthening its market position with the acquisition of Atlatec GmbH, based in Karlsruhe, Germany. Atlatec is a provider of high-resolution digital maps for driver assistance and automated driving. The company, which was spun off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in... Read more →

Volta Trucks’ forthcoming Volta Zero will feature integrated navigation services from HERE Technologies, the leading location data and technology platform. The Volta Zero will use EV Range Assistant, a feature from HERE tailored for inner-city deliveries. EV Range Assistant includes range prediction for trucks on route and allows for route... Read more →

Eighteen months after start of construction of its intelligent satellite production and testing center in Taizhou, China, Geely Technology Group has begun mass production of commercial satellites. The first set of low-orbit satellites rolled off the production line, marking a new milestone in Geely’s advancement into the commercial aerospace sector.... Read more →

Woven Planet Holdings, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor, has acquired CARMERA, a US-based spatial AI company that specializes in developing scalable, next-generation mapping solutions for automated mobility, a proposed transaction previously announced in July 2021. (Earlier post.) The CARMERA offering consists of three components: detection APIs that identify map-impacting events;... Read more →

Micromobility services Bird and Ford-owned Spin are the latest to integrate with Google Maps for Mobile (GMM). People using Google Maps for efficient and reliable journey planning are now able to discover Spin e-scooters and e-bikes and Bird scooters when given route options for their journeys. Google Maps users are... Read more →

Woven Planet Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, has acquired CARMERA, Inc., a US-based spatial AI company, which specializes in bringing next-generation road intelligence to automated mobility at scale. This is the second major deal for Woven Planet in North America, following the April 2021 announcement to acquire... Read more →

NVIDIA will acquire DeepMap, a startup dedicated to building high-definition maps for autonomous vehicles. Maps that are accurate to within a few meters are good enough when providing turn-by-turn directions for humans. AVs, however, require much greater precision. They must operate with centimeter-level precision for accurate localization, the ability of... Read more →

Woven Alpha, Inc., a group company of Woven Planet Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, Isuzu Motors Limited, and Hino Motors, Ltd. are proceeding with talks to utilize the Automated Mapping Platform (AMP) developed by Woven Alpha. AMP is a connected crowdsourced software platform that supports the creation,... Read more →

China-based Momenta announced strategic cooperation with Toyota to provide automated HD mapping and updates through vision-based technologies. With this joint development, both companies aim to promote the commercialization of Toyota’s Automated Mapping Platform (AMP) in the China market to better serve Chinese customers. Momenta's vision-based (camera-based) HD mapping uses low-cost... Read more →

Ridar Systems and HERE Technologies signed a partnership agreement to begin integrating HERE location technology into Ridar’s cloud-based mobile solution. This collaboration will allow Ridar Systems to identify better the location of two-wheelers in order to provide a more accurate position to drivers. Motorcycles, bicycles, scooters and other forms of... Read more →

Location accuracy is a key requirement for the Connected Vehicle (CV) Pilots as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies are deployed in the field in larger quantities. The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) CV Pilot team is working hard to ensure that the in-vehicle devices can establish their... Read more →

Ford has awarded TomTom a global multi-year deal to provide Ford’s next-generation SYNC with its real-time traffic service. The all-new 2021 Ford F-150 pickup and the soon to be delivered all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUV are the first Ford vehicles available with the technology. TomTom Traffic provides accurate, real-time traffic information,... Read more →

A collaboration between Neste, HERE Technologies, and PTV Group indicates that traffic-related CO2 emissions can be reduced by choosing the right driving route, especially in urban areas on short trips with private cars. Earlier this spring, Neste and its partners tested the emissions of different route options by installing measuring... Read more →

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that they can significantly improve the accuracy of autonomous vehicles’ detection of objects such as other cars or pedestrians by helping the vehicle also recognize what it doesn’t see. CMU research shows that what a self-driving car doesn’t see (in green) is as... Read more →

A team from the University of Delaware and the University of Denver has created a new global simulation model to predict how urban land will change over the next 100 years under different social and economic conditions. The research team’s projections show that the amount of urban land on Earth... Read more →

Toyota Research Institute - Advanced Development, Inc. (TRI-AD) and Dynamic Map Platform Co., Ltd. (DMP) will partner to build a proof-of-concept (PoC) applying the technologies of both companies starting April 2020. This PoC aims to demonstrate the efficient update of DMP’s high definition (HD) maps by using TRI-AD’s open software... Read more →

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, Inc. (TRI-AD), Toyota’s automated driving software development company, has successfully completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstrating high definition (HD) map-building for surface roads with a relative accuracy of less than 50 centimeters—a good level that is required for automated driving—using two techniques. Building map information for automated... Read more →

Resource Watch has introduced a new data-driven Air Quality Dashboard featuring the latest maps and data visualizations on the state of the world’s air. Resource Watch worked with WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities to create this resource for data on air quality and emissions. From the Air Quality Dashboard:... Read more →

A model developed by Researchers at MIT and Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) have developed a model that uses satellite imagery to tag road features in digital maps to help improve GPS navigation. Showing drivers more details about their routes can often help them navigate in unfamiliar locations. Lane counts,... Read more →

New research from McGill University and the University of California, Santa Cruz has found that the local streets of the world’s cities are becoming less connected, a global trend that is driving urban sprawl and discouraging the use of public transportation. The new study, published in an open-access paper in... Read more →

At CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Hyundai; Hexagon’s Positioning Intelligence Division; Valeo; and a major mobile network operator are presenting a new technology capable of pinpointing a vehicle’s exact location while on the road. Using proprietary centimeter-level precision called High-Precision Positioning (HPP), the system can further enhance a vehicle’s advanced... Read more →

Hyundai CRADLE, Hyundai Motor Company’s corporate venturing and open innovation business, is investing in Netradyne, a US-based intelligent technology company specializing in fleet safety management software. The partnership supports further development of Level 3+ Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (L3+ ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD) features that may launch over the... Read more →

A team from Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed a high-resolution, bottom-up emissions map that includes every building and road in the Los Angeles megacity basin for a total of 176... Read more →

Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, will collaborate with Mobileye, an Intel Company and a leading provider of advanced driver-assistance systems software, to bring the advanced data collection capabilities of Mobileye into Esri’s platform as native services. This collaboration will provide Esri customers with the ability to visualize and... Read more →

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, Inc. (TRI-AD), Toyota’s automated driving software development company; Maxar Technologies Inc., a global technology innovator powering the new space economy; and NTT DATA Corporation, a leading IT services provider, will collaborate on a proof-of-concept building automated high-definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles using high-resolution satellite imagery.... Read more →

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, Inc. (TRI-AD) and CARMERA, Inc. are conducting a joint proof-of-concept project to develop camera-based automation of high definition (HD) maps for urban and surface roads. This is the first step towards realizing TRI-AD’s open software platform concept known as Automated Mapping Platform (AMP) to support the... Read more →

As self-driving cars continue to develop, there will be a staggering amount of data amassed through cars’ navigational technologies. Questions regarding privacy, ownership, cybersecurity and public safety arise, as heavily guarded mapping data is collected and leveraged by companies. The geospatial data can be used to draw new maps identifying... Read more →

Bridgestone Corporation announced that its subsidiary Bridgestone Europe NV/SA, has entered into an agreement with TomTom to acquire TomTom Telematics, its digital fleet solutions business, for a cash consideration of €910 million (US$1.034 billion). €750 million will be distributed to TomTom shareholders by means of a capital repayment, combined with... Read more →

At CES 2019 last week, NVIDIA showcased DRIVE Localization—an open, scalable platform for vehicles to position themselves on high-definition maps with unprecedented robustness and accuracy, using mass-market sensors. It’s vital for a self-driving car to be able to pinpoint its location within centimeters so it can understand its surroundings and... Read more →