Apple Business Connect Broadens Competition With Google Maps
Can Apple grab a foothold in an area dominated by Google?
While Apple’s AAPL 0.00%↑ ambitious launch last week of Business Connect looks to be a solid one, industry analysts are wondering how will businesses find out about it—and does it lead to ads on the Maps platform?
Apple Business Connect, which is a free tool, allows businesses to customize and present key information through location place cards. In turn, this information appears to more than a billion users across Apple Maps, Messages, Wallet, Siri, and other apps, the company said.
Some of the other features include the ability to add and update photos, logos, invite customers to order food—or make reservations directly from Maps. The potential customers also can receive special promotions, the company said.
The place card will also have a new feature called Showcases, which helps businesses present customers with such offers and incentives as menu items, discounts and more.
These new features put Apple Maps on a collision course with Google GOOG 0.00%↑ and even Yelp, which the company grabbed some of its data from. In addition, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple plans to show search ads in its Maps app this year.
Despite industry skeptics, Apple is finding partners for Business Connect. SOCi has announced an integration with Business Connect to provide local business information and special offers to consumers across Apple Maps and other Apple apps. The company says that 7 out of 10 consumers use mapping and navigation apps to discover new local businesses. SOCi customers will be able to take advantage of multi-location businesses to update location information in the Apple Maps place card.
Another company, Reputation, has announced an integration with Business Connect. Reputation customers will be able to share key business information in the Maps place card, the company said. However, some in the industry believe that Apple having long-time partners such as Reputation is one thing, but how is Business Connect going to market to smaller business?
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TRB Remains Government Show With Occasional Heated Panel
WASHINGTON—The annual Transportation Research Board meeting here showcases government and academic programs, with student poster board sessions and updates on worldwide testing. However, in a session titled, “A Critical Look at the State of the Automated Vehicles Industry,” several industry executives assessed why some investors are bailing on the technology after the Argo AI shutdown last month.
Industry analyst Richard Bishop said a lot of the downturn comes from recent negative press that surrounded Ford F 0.00%↑ and Volkswagen’s shutdown of Argo AI. “Journalists went nuts about it. Some articles had titles like ‘scam highway to nowhere,’” he said. “Somewhere in their reporting they didn’t mention that Amazon AAPL 0.00%↑ wanted to join the Argo AI partnership that would have meant hundreds of millions of dollars to equip the company’s massive EV fleet. Those things get lost by journalists.”
Bishop said that there are many SAE Level 3 tests going on and that China, particularly Baidu BIDU 0.00%↑, is leading the world in more than one million driverless robotaxi rides. “No one has sufficient information to say whether AVs will be a success. It is true that belts are tightening,” he said.
However, at least one industry expert said that China should be looked at as an autonomous vehicle innovator. “I have experience working with Chinese companies who are testing in California. They do extremely unsafe things,” said a CALSTART executive. “I think we should be the nation that doesn’t say let’s be the first with an AV system, but the first with safe systems.”
In other TRB news:
PTV Group allowed TRB visitors to get a glimpse of the company’s PTV Model2Go Demand, which is an automation technology for transportation models. Model2Go Demand, which is the next version of the company’s Model2Go, includes travel demand data from TomTom [Tom2]. PTV Group this week that the company, Econolite and CONUNDRA have created separate mobility and logistics businesses—backed by investors Bridgepoint and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
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Sheeva.AI Grabs $9.25 Million in Series A Funding
Sheeva.AI has finalized a $9.25 million Series A funding round, led by investors Reynolds and Reynolds Company, with additional funding from Poppe + Potthoff Capital GmbH and Pegasus Tech Ventures.
Sheeva.AI offers precise geolocation technology that allows drivers to pay for and receive such services as fueling, EV charging, parking, curbside pickup and drive-through. The technology detects the vehicle at a specific gas pump, parking spot, EV charging space or drive-through lane to enable payments.
Company founder and CEO Evgeny Klochikhin said that the first transactions are beginning, with the hope of millions of cars in the United States, Europe, Japan, India and other areas to be added in a few years. “Having completed pilots in India and the United States, the firm is now full speed ahead for production launch on thousands of cars in 2023,” he said. “It’s a signal that the automotive market is looking hard at ways to monetize the driver relationship by offering a premium experience.”
Sheeva.AI said it will use the new round of funding to build out its production team. This build out will help grow its automotive partner footprint and add new service partners. Pegasus Tech Ventures, early investors in SpaceX, DoorDash and Instacart, also closed out this funding round, the company said. Earlier seed funding came from Hagiwara America, Techstars and Conscious Venture Partners.
It’s been a busy month for the company as it partnered with AeonCharge at CES to bring in-vehicle activation and payment of more than 50,000 public EV chargers in North America. Sheeva.AI will provide vehicle location-based services to monetize driver experience, while AeonCharge will offer its app that helps EV drivers locate, activate and pay for charging sessions.
In 2023, Klochikhin sees company growth continuing. “We obviously want to add more services like curbside retail, drive-thru food and parking to our existing retail energy channels,” he said. “The desire for retailers of all kinds to differentiate is strong and if they can bring the transaction into the car, they create a stickier customer memory and loyalty.”
Contact: Trevor Curwin, Sheeva.AI, (415) 646-6063, tcurwin@sheeva.ai.
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Datalogic and Quuppa Partner on RTLS-based Shopping Companion
Espoo, Finland-based Quuppa has partnered with Datalogic to offer the Joya Touch 22 shopping companion. The Joya Touch 22 integrates the Quuppa Intelligent Locating System that is used in such industries as manufacturing and logistics, retail, healthcare, sports, law enforcement and security, the company said.
The unit supports indoor localization capabilities to track customer location while shopping. This ensures that shoppers receive the latest offers, promotions and product location in real time, the company said.
“The offering can be used by partners and end customers across retail, supply chain management and logistics to improve workflow efficiency and save operational cost,” said Sammy Loitto, Quuppa CEO, in a statement.
Joya Touch 22, which works with Android OS with Google Mobile Services, features a 4.3-inch display and wireless charging that enables one-hour of shopping with a 15-minute charge time.
For its part, Quuppa, which more than 3,000 location-based services integrations, has an ecosystem of more than 200 partners.
Contact: Sari Arjamo-Tuominen, Quuppa, sari.arjamo-tuominen@quuppa.com, www.quuppa.com.
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Top News:
🚀 SpaceX Launches Sixth Next-generation GPS Satellite. SpaceX launched a GPS-III satellite for the U.S. Space Force on Wednesday, Jan. 18. A Falcon 9 spacecraft launched GPS-III-SV06, built by Lockheed Martin LMT 0.00%↑ to be placed into a medium Earth orbit (MEO).
🙁 HUAWEI Ads Now Becomes Petal Ads. “HUAWEI will be taking all of those technical advances in AI-powered mobile search, location-based services and creative editing tools to further power the growth of the Petal Ads platform.” Location privacy issues? Nothing to see here, move on…
Maps:
🤔 Apple Business Connect: A Cure for Apple Maps' Weak Spot? “But here’s the $64 million dollar question: will businesses even realize that Apple Business Connect exists?”
👍 Amazon Location Service adds GrabMaps in Southeast Asia. “Amazon Location Service adds a new data source in Southeast Asia, GrabMaps, offering maps, search, and routing.”
🤞 Google Maps No Longer Needs a Phone to Deliver Turn-by-Turn Navigation. “Google GOOG 0.00%↑ wants you to use Google Maps on your Wear OS watch without having your phone with you.”
Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
😒 Driverless Cars: The Dark Side of Autonomous Vehicles That No One's Talking About. Um, they are talking about this…
Tracking:
😮 Google Reportedly Working On Airtag-like Location Trackers. “Leaks suggest Google GOOG 0.00%↑ is working on its own first-party tracking tags to use alongside its in-development Finder Network.”
🤷♂️ Airtag-inspired Google Tracking Device Has Literally the Most Unfortunate Name Ever. The G Spot? Holy hell.
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Semtech Completes $1.2 Billion Sierra Wireless Acquisition
Semtech SMTC 0.00%↑ and Sierra Wireless SWIR 0.00%↑ have announced the completion of Semtech’s acquisition of Sierra Wireless for $1.2 billion in an all-cash transaction. Semtech says the deal nearly doubles its annual revenue by adding $100 milion in IoT Cloud services
Former Sierra Wireless executives who will join Semtech leadership team: Tom Mueller, executive vice president of the IoT System Products Group; Ross Gray, vice president of the IoT Connected Services Group; and Pravin Desale, senior vice president of IoT Engineering.
Contact: Julie McGee, Semtech, jmcgee@semtech.com.
Rightware and TomTom Demonstrate Digital Cockpit, Maps at CES
TomTom [TOM2] and Rightware demonstrated the TomTom Digital Cockpit and Kanzi Maps at CES 2023. TomTom says its Digital Cockpit is the first open and flexible digital cockpit development platform that comes with hundreds of production-ready services and applications for automakers.
Combined with Kanzi One, which also integrates into Android Automotive, the TomTom Digital Cockpit allows manufacturers to shift their focus from low-level details of software development to implementing engaging user experience that strengthens their brand, the company said. Kanzi Maps is a map visualization tool, allowing OEMs to integrate map data from various sources, the company said.
Contact: Vincent Martinier, TomTom, vincent.martinier@tomtom.com, www.tomtom.com.
Assured Telematics Launches First Forklift Tracking and Management Solution
Assured Telematics has launched what it calls the first forklift tracking, monitoring and maintenance solution with Hiab [CGCBV], which provides the Moffett truck-mounted forklifts. The company partnered with BeWhere [BEW] and Geotab to allow both indoor and outdoor tracking on electric and propane powered forklifts.
Integrated within the MyGeotab fleet management platform, the BeWhere Forklift telematics solution provides indoor tracking using WiFI and BLE micro-location and outdoor tracking using GNSS. Assured Telematics has also become the first telematics provider to fully integrate Hiab’s HiConnect platform with the MyGeotab platform, the company said.
Contact: Frank Pellitta, Assured Telematics, media@assured-telematics.com, www.assuredtelematics.com.
Trimble Asset Management Software Purchased By NPRA
Trimble $TRMB said its Trimble's AgileAssets infrastructure enterprise asset management software has been purchased the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) Operations and Maintenance.
NPRA will use the software to help maintain the country's 10,600-km road network and associated transportation infrastructure.
Contact: Trimble, www.trimble.com.
Thales Alenia Space Signs Contract for SAR System
Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with Appworks to provide Thailand with a search and rescue (SAR) operational system based on the COSPAS-SARSAT MEOSAR Service. Mainly using the Galileo satellite positioning system, the solution will detect and locate distress signals from beacons at sea, on land or in the air. This
Contact: Sandrine Bielecki, Thales Alenia Space, 33 04 9292 7094, Sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com.
Comtech Releases New Logo, Brand Identity
Comtech CMTL 0.00%↑ has released a new logo and brand identity. The company says the new logo and identity aligns with its customer-centric focus and commitment to accelerating technologies.
Contact: Robert Samuels, Comtech, (631) 962-7102, robert.samuels@comtech.com, www.comtech.com.
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U-blox Announces JODY-W4 Series Modules
Thalwil, Switzerland-based u-blox [UBXN] has introduced the JODY-W4-series (Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth LE 5.3 host-based modules), which have been designed on the Infineon CYW89570 chipset to target the automotive segment, the company said.
The first samples of JODY-W4 modules will be available in July 2023.
In other company news, u-blox has announced the certification of its SARA-R5 series on all Japan MNOs’ LTE-M networks. SARA-R5, based on u‑blox’s low-power wide-area (LPWA) chipset UBX-R5, are the first company IoT products to achieve certification with all Japanese operators.
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com, www.u-blox.com.
Rooster Launches Asset Tracking System
Kansas-based Rooster LLC has launched the Rooster Asset Tracking System that captures every minute of powered, unpowered and heavy equipment activity and automates reporting for as little as $1 per month.
The Rooster Asset Tracking System consists of Rooster Hubs and Rooster Activity Trackers. Rooster Hubs are data portals that connect to the Cloud through an LTE-M cellular connection to deliver GPS location and activity data.
Contact: Cindy Trotto, for Rooster, (785) 581-0441, 352199@email4pr.com.
Ryken GPS Rebrands, Offers Tracking Platform
Ryken GPS, formerly Revo Asset Management, has rebranded to include changes in the company name, logo, and platform enhancements. The company, which offers a “no contract, no monthly fees” policy, is owned by IoT company Procon Analytics.
Its platform includes real-time location, powered and self-powered GPS hardware and a mobile app.
Contact: Ryken GPS, (833) 738-6875, info@rykengps.com, https://rykengps.com.
People
ORBCOMM has named Pete Wilson as business development manager, channel sales, North America. Wilson held executive positions at Telefonica, Rogers Communications, Aeris Communications and Space Systems Loral.
HARMAN International named Heiko Huettel as vice president, software products. Huettel held executive positions at Microsoft MSFT 0.00%↑.
JAVAD GNSS has named John Roscoe-Hudson as technical sales support engineer. Roscue-Hudson held positions at Advanced Navigation and Teledyne Marine.
Asset tracking company Adapt Ideations appointed Jeff Owoc as strategic advisor to operations. He previously held management positions at Bayer and MEDRAD.
Jobs
EMEA Sales Manager DACH Region. Taoglas.
Marine Product Manager. Hexagon's Autonomy & Positioning.
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Senior Project Lead - Connected Infotainment Product Development. Volkswagen of America.
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