Google Wins Antitrust Lawsuit Over Maps Monopoly Allegations
Judge says plaintiffs have 30 days to refile proposed class action lawsuit.
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Alphabet Inc. GOOG 0.00%↑ grabbed an initial victory in court against antitrust litigation that alleged its Google Maps steered app developers into using its products over those of competitors. According to published reports, Judge Jeffrey White, who tentatively dismissed the proposed class action, gave businesses leading the proposed class action 30 days to refile.
In his opinion, rendered for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, White found that the plaintiffs failed to show that Alphabet has an established policy of binding the use of Maps services to potential purchases of their competitors. In addition, the court found that the plaintiffs did not properly define the market that was at the center of their complaint.
The companies involved in the lawsuit contend that Google ties its Maps, Routes and Places API services together by allegedly “refusing to sell one API service unless the purchaser also agrees to purchase another [Google] mapping service or agrees to refrain from purchasing API services from other companies.” The plaintiffs also say that Google’s market power allows it to charge higher prices for its API services.
Recently, Google agreed to pay Arizona $85 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged the tech giant mislead consumers about how it they used location data via tracking smartphones.
In addition, a German federal agency is investigating Google Maps over concerns that the mapping giant limits customers’ options to use alternative map companies. According to published reports, the German Federal Cartel Office has opened a formal probe—to include Google’s Automotive Services.
Rival Mapping Companies Make Big Announcements
Coming off a week where it overhauled its entire mapping platform, Dutch mapmaker TomTom [TOM2] announced it was awarded a global contract to provide its maps, navigation software and connected services to auto giant Stellantis. The maps, software and services, including real-time traffic information, will go into the STLA SmartCockpit.
The new STLA SmartCockpit, scheduled to be launched in 2024, will feature AI-based applications that provide navigation, voice assistance, e-commerce and payment services, the company said. The platform will use Amazon AMZN 0.00%↑ products. In the meantime, existing Stellantis platforms will continue to be powered by TomTom’s navigation solutions, the company said.
No financial details were revealed by TomTom, but sources say it is one of the biggest contracts ever awarded to the company.
TomTom’s rival, HERE Technologies, announced it will “power hands-free driving for BMW.” The company said that the BMW 7 Series will be the first vehicle to roll out SAE Level 2+ at speeds of 130 miles per hour in the United States and Canada.
BMW will use the HERE HD Live Map that will be integrated into additional car models as automated driving capabilities increase, the company said. The BMW 7 Series will also use HERE Predictive Routing and HERE Real-Time Traffic.
Contact: TomTom, www.tomtom.com; Jordan Stark, HERE, (312) 316-4537, Jordan.stark@here.com.
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Ouster and Velodyne Announce Merger
The consolidation of the autonomous vehicle industry continues as lidar companies Ouster OUST 0.00%↑ and Velodyne VLDR 0.00%↑ announced they will merge. The agreement calls for shareholders of both companies to each own 50 percent of the new entity, which hasn’t been named yet.
The merger, expected to close in the first half of 2023, will result in an annual cost savings of “at least $75 million,” the companies say. As for who will be leading the new entity, Ouster’s Angus Pacala will serve as CEO and Velodyne’s boss, Ted Tewksbury, will be executive chairman of the board.
Both companies have been hammered financially this year as the lidar market has seen mixed results. Ouster and Velodyne both recorded second-quarter losses and have seen stock prices plummet.
Still, in a consolidating lidar market, the companies say they have 173 granted and 504 pending patents. In addition, the companies say they have $355 million in cash.
The deal comes as Velodyne faced internal challenges in the past couple of years when CEO Anand Gopalan resigned. In addition, the company’s founder, David Hall, was removed as chairman of the board. At the same time, Velodyne has its share of wins including a multi-year agreement to provide its lidar sensors to Yamaha Motor for eve autonomy, a joint venture with Tier IV.
In other company news, Ouster rolled out its OSDome digital lidar sensor, which is based upon the same foundational design as the company’s OS family.
Contact: Heather Shapiro, Ouster, press@ouster.io, www.ouster.com.
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Other Location News:
News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
Top News:
💲 Inmarsat Wins $410 Million U.S. Army Contract To Connect Tracking Devices. “Inmarsat Government announced Nov. 7 it won a $410 million, five-year contract extension to provide internet-of-things satellite connectivity for U.S. Army battlefield tracking devices.”
👍 u-blox Fends off Ransomware Cyberattack. “The attack was detected and contained on Oct. 24, 2022. Upon discovery of suspicious activities, immediate inhibition steps were taken and recovery is far advanced.”
👏 Jammer Test 2022 Norway Results. “Under the influence of a certain type of jamming, a GNSS receiver can produce coordinates with errors of tens of kilometers. What should we call spoofing or jamming?”
Space:
🛰 China's Home-grown Beidou Satellite System Eyes Global Footprint. “A white paper released by the Chinese government said Beijing is “strengthening regional cooperation with organizations such as ASEAN, the African Union, the League of Arab States, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.”
🙂 NaviLEO selected for COMPASSO. “SpacePNT has been selected by the German Aerospace Center to supply its NaviLEO spaceborne GNSS receiver solution.”
Maps:
🗺 Google is Quietly Preparing a New Big Change for Google Maps Users. “As it turns out, the Mountain View-based search giant plans to kill off the stand-alone Street View app and rely solely on the integration in Google Maps, with the shutdown to take place early next year.”
🤔 TomTom Wants To Wrestle Control of the Digital Map Back From Silicon Valley. The article’s last paragraph: “The company expects to roll out its platform in the second quarter of 2023 and we’re excited to see if it’ll shift the digital mapmaking market, and wrestle control of it away from Silicon Valley.”
Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
🚗 Renault Pushes Software Vision With Google, Qualcomm. “The expanded agreement includes developing digital twins for vehicles, which Renault stated will employ AI to create and deliver new in-car services along with off-board applications.”
🙁 Lyft Takes $135.7 Million Hit On Argo AI Shutdown.
🙂 Luminar Says It Has Begun Production of Its Automotive Lidar Units Ahead of Schedule. “Luminar LAZR 0.00%↑ is now shipping lidar units to SAIC Motor, China’s largest automaker, ahead of schedule. The announcement comes alongside Luminar’s third-quarter results, in which the company reported an adjusted loss of 18 cents per share on revenue of $12.8 million.”
🤨 Tesla Reluctantly Gave Full Self-driving Beta Demo to DMV and Critics. “Tesla apparently had particular issues with Steven Shladover, a transportation research engineer at the University of California at Berkeley, who previously called Tesla’s use of the term self-driving “very damaging,” and with Bryant Walker Smith, an affiliate scholar at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, who has advocated, like many others, that the autonomous testing and reporting rules should apply to Tesla’s FSD Beta. “
🤔 Aurora Says It Has Enough Cash To Commercialize Autonomous Trucks in 2024. “Aurora Innovation AUR 0.00%↑ said it will have enough money to continue to develop its autonomous vehicle technology until mid-2024 just ahead of its commercial launch — an effort to assuage shareholders amid a tightening capital market and a week after competitor Argo AI suddenly shut down.”
Aviation and UAVs:
🛩 Garmin’s G3000 chosen for USSOCOM’s Armed Overwatch program. “L3Harris Technologies LHX 0.00%↑ has selected Garmin International GRMN 0.00%↑ to support its contract with the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) for the Armed Overwatch program. Under the new deal, Garmin will provide its G3000 tandem integrated flight deck system for L3Harris’ AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft.”
😲 Researchers Spin up Terrifying Hacker Drone That Can 'See Through Walls' With WiFi. “Using a $20 off-the-shelf drone, researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario have created what is effectively an airborne scanning device that can triangulate the location of every WiFi-connected device in your house. Yikes.”
Financial:
✔ Globalstar Announces Third Quarter 2022 Results.
What’s Happening This Week:
🚆 Trimble : Introduces Rail Module for Real-Time Monitoring Software. “Trimble TRMB 0.00%↑ announced, at Trimble Dimensions+, its 4D Control software version 6.4, featuring an add-on rail-specific monitoring solution. T4D is a software suite for real-time displacement monitoring and detection.”
Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
PTV Group Enters U.S. Market With Truck Navigation App
PTV Group has launched the next generation of its professional truck navigation app, PTV Truck Navigator G2. The app, which uses the TomTom Navigation SDK, includes up-to-date maps, custom truck routing and is available globally and for the first time in the U.S. market, the company said.
“A professional truck navigation app is key to achieving transport efficiency especially in the US where challenges like driver shortages, supply chain disruptions and growing regulatory pressures to decarbonize persist,” says Christian Haas, PTV Group CEO. An SDK to embed PTV Navigator G2 into third party mobile solutions is planned for Android and iOS in 2023, the company said.
Contact: Stefanie Schmidt, PTV Group, 49 721-9651-7451, stefanie.schmidt@ptvgroup.com, www.ptvgroup.com.
Li Auto Smart Driving System Has u-blox ZED-F9K GNSS Module
Thalwil, Switzerland-based u-blox [UBXN] has announced that its dead reckoning module will provide lane-level accurate positioning data for Li Auto’s Li L9 SUV’s assisted smart driving system. Launched in June, the Li L9 comes equipped with a Li AD MAX smart driving system with Navigation on ADAS functionality, the company said.
Designed to serve mass market industrial and automotive applications, the u-blox F9 platform combines multi-band GNSS technology with dead reckoning and high precision algorithms. It is compatible with a variety of GNSS correction data services to achieve accuracy down to the centimeter level, the company said.
In other company news, u-blox introduced the NORA-W3 series modules. NORA-W3 is a compact dual-band Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 module featuring u-connectXpress for easy integration, the company said.
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com, www.u-blox.com.
ON!Track Asset Management Solution Integrates Trimble Viewpoint Vista
Trimble TRMB 0.00%↑ and the Hilti Group announced that Hilti ON!Track asset management system will integrate Trimble’s Viewpoint Vista. The enterprise resource planning solution was announced at the Trimble Dimensions+ Conference.
In other company news, Trimble and Exyn Technologies have partnered on the Autonomous Surveying Solution for Construction. The solution will integrate Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot, the ExynPakÔ and Trimble X7 total station.
Contact: LeaAnn McNabb, Trimble: (408) 481-7808, www.trimble.com.
Phunware Extends LBS Contract With Hospital Chain
Phunware PHUN 0.00%↑ has announced a three-year contract renewal and expansion win to license its patented location-based services to Parkview Health. The health system, with 10 hospitals and 100 clinics, will also use Phunware’s wayfinding solution on its Fort Wayne, Ind.-based campus.
Contact: Matt Glover, for Phunware, (949) 574-3860, phun@gatewayir.com, www.phunware.com/solutions/healthcare.
ORBCOMM Rolls Out CT 1000
ORBCOMM’s new CT 1000 solution, expected to be commercially available in early 2023, digitalizes global container shipping, to provide visibility and traceability for shipping lines and their customers. CT 1000 allows shippers and operators to track the location and status of their dry marine containers at every point in the asset’s journey, the company said.
Shipping line Hapag-Lloyd is the first in the industry to leverage ORBCOMM’s latest dry container IoT technology, the company said. The shipping line will begin installing a unique CT 1000 device, built specifically for the company, for their dry containers in December.
Contact: Michelle Ferris, ORBCOMM, (703) 462-3894, ferris.michelle@orbcomm.com, www.orbcomm.com.
Advanced Navigation Rolls Out New FOG INS
Advanced Navigation has launched the Boreas D70, a fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG) inertial navigation system (INS). The D70 is the latest release in the Boreas digital FOG (DFOG) series.
Boreas D70 combines closed-loop DFOG and accelerometer technologies, with a dual antenna RTK GNSS receiver. These are coupled with Advanced Navigation’s AI based fusion algorithm to deliver accurate and precise navigation, the company said.
Contact: Advanced Navigation, 61 2 9099 3800, www.advancednavigation.com.
Spireon to Track U.S. Capitol’s Christmas Tree
Spireon, a division of Solera, in partnership with Choose Outdoors, is launching its annual real-time tracking of the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. The tree, harvested from the National Forests in North Carolina, will end its journey on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Spireon’s FleetLocate trailer management solution will track the tree’s GPS location. Follow it at www.capitoltreetracker.com.
Contact: Priti Sharma, Solera, Priti.Sharma@Solera.com, www.spireon.com.
People
CEVA CEVA 0.00%↑ has announced that CEO Gideon Wertheizer has chosen to retire at the end of 2022. The CEVA board of directors has appointed Amir Panush as CEO effective Jan. 1, 2023. Panush joins CEVA from InvenSense, where he served as CEO and general manager of TDK Corporation's MEMS Sensors Business Group.
Joshua Morales, CEO of StarNav LLC, has been named a Small/Emerging Enterprise Entrepreneur finalist for the 2022 Spirit Award sponsored by Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards.
Jobs
Sr. Product Manager, Mobile App. Axon.
Executive Director. GPS Innovation Alliance.
Open Positions. Mapbox.
Product Manager. Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division.
Senior Program Officer. Transportation Research Board.
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