HERE Rises Above Google Maps for Navigation Leadership
Study says HERE Technologies maintains the location platform leadership ahead of Google and TomTom in 2021.
A new location industry study said HERE Technologies has moved ahead of Google Maps as the top mapping platform in automotive, enterprise and other market segments. The study, Counterpoint Research’s Location Platform Vendor Scorecard, analyzed 25 mapping and location platform companies.
The company used these criteria for the evaluation: maps data, location intelligence, location services, data platform, developer ecosystem, partners, and ‘customer rolodex’ growth.
“In the last 18 months, HERE has expanded its portfolio, platform capabilities partnerships and customer base,” the study said.
Google, which the study says is the second largest location and mapping platform, scored well in “comprehensiveness, coverage, POIs, and freshness of the map data and adding newer capabilities such as Augmented Reality in the consumer space leveraging with 3.5 billion Android users globally.”
However, the study said that Google “lags when it comes to automotive, enterprise sectors behind HERE, TomTom and regional champions in key markets.” In addition, the study said that Google has been “relatively slow to transform into a full-blown platform model despite in mapping usage.”
The study said that TomTom is the third largest player in its rankings “with growth in the mapping and location intelligence capabilities mainly targeting the automotive industry and other maps data licensing opportunities.”
Overall, the top three companies led in these areas:
HERE “led in more than 40 capabilities including Maps Data depth, freshness, indoor maps, HD Maps, navigation, routing, EV services, tracking and positioning, developer support, platform privacy, security.”
Google “led in overall maps data reach, coverage, depth, POIs, AR, Infotainment and so forth.”
Tom Tom “led in navigation, offline maps coverage, navigation and other areas.”
The study said that Mapbox, which it rates as one of the top five location platforms globally, is finding success based on its “developer traction, advanced visualization, analytics tools and partnership roster.”
Interview: Geoflex Offers Precise Positioning for Auto Market
The editors of Location Business News interviewed Cyrille Michaud, Geoflex chief sales officer, to discuss 2022 opportunities for the France-based precision positioning company.
LBN: How does Geoflex add more value to car data with precise positioning? Is that a market you see that will grow in 2022?
Michaud: “When you think about car data, location is a critical parameter, and accuracy in location is opening the door to very new opportunities. Think about map crowdsourcing: with standard GPS location you can crowdsource map for navigation, but with decimeter positioning accuracy you can crowdsource maps for lane level navigation or ADAS, a real game changer. Same thing for traffic crowdsourcing, to enable accurate lane-level traffic, for example for car pool lanes, or lane-based e-tolling. Cars are already “sensors on a wheel”… and adding a very precise location tag associated to each of these sensor’s measurements creates additional value.”
“When it comes to predictions for 2022, first it is important to understand that the car data market has seen staggering investments in 2021, with two IPOs of data aggregation platforms: Otonomo and Wejo, as well as the growing number of connected cars on the road generating billions of data points daily.”
“In 2022 the market will continue to mature. Existing uses cases will churn revenue while nascent use cases will go through proofs of concept. A share of these new use cases will be completely outside the automotive industry. Two simple examples : Out of Home Advertising where car data is used to understand the Billboard ad exposure, and road infrastructure management where car data is used to assess the quality of the road, to detect forming potholes.”
“Moving forward, as the amount of car data is growing exponentially and gets aggregated and de facto standardized, there will be a commoditization effect affecting the monetization. We expect high accuracy data will be a differentiator to avoid commoditization and maintain market value.”
LBN: How is the Airbus/Orange partnership going? Any new developments?
Michaud: “We have a number of ongoing discussions with prospects. Airbus has started to commercialize their Pléiades Neo, their new optical 30-centimeter resolution constellation in November 2021, a very unique offering which resonates well with the accuracy we can provide on the ground.”
“With Orange there are many opportunities unfolding at this time, we are working together with Orange Business Services on different RFPs and RFQs and an exciting proof of concept that is confidential at this time. It also worth mentioning that Geoflex has finished second in the Software République Mobility 4.0 Challenge, where Orange is a partner together with Renault, STMicro, Dassault Systems, Thales and Atos. As a result of the prize Geoflex is incubated in the software République, so it makes another opportunity of collaboration with Orange and other stakeholders on automotive and smart mobility topics.”
LBN: What do you see as your strongest market in 2022?
Michaud: “For Geoflex, road mobility continues to be the market with the largest traction today. However we are currently involved in projects in the drone, marine, railways and defense industries. You can also expect some Geoflex news about smartphones in the coming months. High accuracy is definitely the next big thing in location.”
Contact: Ludovic Privat, Geoflex, 33 6 22 05 61 38, www.geoflex.fr.
Esri Launches Indoor Positioning System
According to a company blog, Esri has announced its ArcGIS IPS, a new indoor positioning system that adds the blue dot to indoor maps. The company says the new system allows companies to improve workplace operations.
Essentially, the system allows users to find themselves on a mobile app indoors—just like they would using GPS outdoors. The system features beacon technology, mobile and desktop tech for real-time positionng.
The company, which recently tested the system at the University of Oxford, says the system offers real-time localization and positioning inside buildings, which includes navigation and wayfinding. Other features include live location sharing and tracking, data capture and analytical insights.
Chargeseeker Gives EV Owners Travel Information
A new product will allow electric vehicle owners the ability to plan trips and search for points of interest while charging their batteries.
After a starting point and destination is entered by a user, Chargeseeker will plan the trip to include recommended stops at EV charging stations, nearby points of interest. These POIs include cafes, restaurants, shopping, pharmacies, accommodations, attractions and outdoor activities.
“We built [Chargeseeker] during the pandemic as we were looking to answer the question of what to do while charging,” said Fraser Campbell, Wcities CEO. “Some of these answers including finding location, plug type, availability, price and ‘what am I to do.’ This includes shop, eat, play, walk the dog. We realize that not every stop is the same for everyone, so we rated it on all of the factors and the context of the stop for the user.”
Campbell said that the company plans to enable transactions for accommodations on longer trips—some of which will be location-based.
Contact: Fraser Campbell, fraser@wcities.com.
Interview: Navigine Offers Integrated Positioning Technologies for Worldwide Markets
The editors of Location Business News recently interviewed Alexey Panyov, Navigine CEO, to get his insight on what’s happening in 2022. Navigine provides integrated positioning technologies that enable worldwide wayfinding and tracking solutions.
LBN: What do you view as the top market for indoor positioning in 2022?
Panyov: “I believe we will see a growing demand for indoor positioning in healthcare and retail industries. These markets have absolutely different approaches to technology integration. For healthcare, indoor positioning can become a groundbreaker to improve workflow transparency, equipment monitoring, and help with the patient's flow. While retail will benefit in terms of additional customer data thus allowing to improve the experience and generate more profits. Therefore, we will see new opportunities and use cases of positioning technologies in 2022.”
LBN: In terms of Navigine, do you believe the indoor tracking of assets (industrial) for the company is probably the largest market right now?
Panyov: Over the years, Navigine had projects in various industries, thus we tried not to put emphasis on a particular market. To our credit, we had a number of industrial projects providing Navigine indoor tracking solution to solve such challenges like worker safety, tracking of valuable assets, saving time wasted on asset search, or accident reporting. We have also worked with projects in retail, automotive, healthcare, sports, universities, museums, and other verticals providing not only indoor tracking, but indoor navigation and wayfinding solutions.
LBN: What are your new products and services?
Panyov: “This year Navigine launched a Fulfillment Management Kit that targets the existing challenges of the order execution process in retail and logistics covering such aspects as layout, order collection, and efficiency management. The kit can be integrated into the existing IT infrastructure to increase the quality and speed of work at the fulfillment center or a warehouse.”
Contact: Margarita Vlasova, Navigine, (516) 725-9698, margarita@navigine.com.
Other Location News:
News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
😦 CES Unable To Confirm COVID-19 Cases After 70 South Korean Nationals Test Positive. “The 70 South Korean nationals included representatives from Samsung Electronics and chipmaker SK Hynix.”
🚚 Gillig and Robotic Research Partner To Develop Autonomous Buses. The companies will develop “next-generation advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicle technology” for Gillig transit buses in North America.
👏 Semtech Announces Integration of LoRa Edge Geolocation Service Into Tencent’s Cloud IoT Explorer.
🚜 John Deere Selects Razor Tracking. “John Deere customers now have the ability to see their support vehicles and non-powered equipment alongside JDLink enabled equipment in Operations Center by integrating Razor Tracking devices.”
✔ Five 5G Business Trends to Watch in 2022: ABI Research. “5G positioning will not replace alternative RTLS technologies.”
😞 Local Motors, the Startup Behind the Olli Autonomous Shuttle, Has Shut Down. “The shutdown comes only a few months after Vikrant Aggarwal, formerly president and chief operating officer, took over as CEO, as the company shared plans to scale production globally.”
👌 Google Maps Alternative Announces Major New Feature for Personalized Navigation. “TomTom [TOM2] announced a new AmiGO feature whose purpose is to pave the way for a more personalized navigation experience when getting behind the wheel.”
👍 T-Mobile 5G Hits the Racetrack With Halo. “The Halo car wasn’t competing itself but drove at speeds of up to 95 mph in warm up laps ahead of each round. The vehicle was piloted over T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G network, which includes mid-band 2.5 GHz spectrum.”
🚍 J.B. Hunt Will Be Waymo's First Self-driving Freight Customer. “J.B. Hunt will be Waymo Via’s first launch customer for fully autonomous, driverless freight routes, which Waymo expects to reach within the next few years.
🚕 China's Robotaxis Charged Ahead in 2021. “But their announcements, dotted with regulatory jargon and flowery language, need a closer look.”
Autonomous Industry Execs Talk 2022
New sensor technologies, a shift from robotaxis to trucking, increased Lidar market penetration and industry consolidation will be among the most important trends in 2022, said autonomous company executives in a recent interview.
Paul Drysch, PreAct Technologies CEO, said that the last 50 feet (short range and near field sensing) will gather a ton of attention this year in order to meet the demands of more advanced ADAS and vehicle convenience features. “The market will need to adapt since traditional radar and ultrasound are not sufficient anymore. The last 50 feet is a much harder problem to solve than highway driving, and it’s also the most important to the success of full autonomy within a city,” he said.
Drysch believes that such new sensor technologies as 4D and continuous wave time of flight (CWTOF) cameras will start to gain significant traction. “Because of the need for better near-field sensing—we’ll ultimately see ultrasound and other tech go away,” he said.
Drysch said that Lidar will finally start to find some traction in production vehicles, however that volume will remain minuscule and “there are still way too many Lidar companies—so there will be some consolidation and some players disappearing in 2022-2023.”
Blair LaCorte, AEye [LIDR] CEO, said that there will be a distinct shift from robotaxis to trucking. “Robotaxi implementations in closed-loop environments have been well-proven. The next major transportation network to tackle autonomous mobility will be trucks delivering goods across cities and states,” he said.
LaCorte also said that highway autopilot will emerge as the “marquee app” in automotive ADAS as Lidar enables small object detection at highway speeds.
LaCorte also believes that:
Over the air updates become more prevalent: Automakers will take a cue from Elon Musk, looking to over-the-air updates to deliver continuous feature enhancements, and moving toward subscription pricing to drive future revenues.
Industrial markets will drive autonomous mobility: What’s old is new, as “old school” companies and industries lead the way in implementing autonomy. Think aerospace & defense, construction and rail - companies with “closed loop” scenarios with much more predictable use cases and challenges than those in automotive.
Continued consolidation: As the industry seeks complete autonomous mobility solutions, get ready for continued consolidation, especially with regard to the software perception layer (i.e. Uber/Aurora, Aptiv/Hyundai).
Rick Tewell, AEye COO, believes that while 2021 was a “go public, get resourced year for Lidar and autonomous driving companies, 2022 will be a “prove your value” year. “Lidar players will have to validate their technology through real-world use cases—warehouse robots, cars, intersections,” he said.
Tewell said that trucking companies already know they need Lidar for safe, accurate autonomy. However, for intelligent transportation systems, rail, marine, companies find it imperative that they use the technology. He also said that consumers will soon become savvy to Lidar in that they will associate cars being safer with it embedded.
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Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
NextNav Selected by Wireless Carrier
NextNav has entered into an agreement with what it says is one of the nation’s largest wireless carriers to deliver vertical location for Enhanced 911 (E911). The deal calls for NextNav’s Pinnacle 911 to be used by all of the carrier’s customers, which includes the delivery of vertical location to public safety answering points (PSAPs).
The company says that Pinnacle 911, reaching more than 4,400 cities and towns in the United States, will exceed the FCC Z-axis requirement for nationwide E911. NextNav’s list of existing partners and customers includes AT&T FirstNet, Intrepid Networks, 3am, TRX Systems, Qualcomm, Bosch, Unity and Unreal Engine.
Contact: Mahmood Abu-Rubieh, for NextNav, NextNav@launchsquad.com.
Ford and ADT to Form Joint Venture
Ford [F] and ADT Inc. [ADT] will invest in a new joint venture called Canopy that combines ADT’s professional security monitoring and Ford’s AI-driven video camera technology for auto security across automotive brands, the company said. Canopy plans to launch multi-sensor security systems early next year.
Canopy’s first smart vehicle security system offering will use acoustic sensors for vans, onboard cameras, radar, LTE, and GPS. The initial product will have a camera that can be mounted in either a van’s cargo area or on a pickup facing the bed, the company said.
Contact: Wes Sherwood, Ford, (313) 573-3530, wsherwoo@ford.com, www.canopy.security.
ACR Group Acquires TRX Systems
The ACR Group has announced the acquisition of Maryland-based TRX Systems, the developer of NEON GPS-denied location solutions and the TRX Dismounted Assured Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) System (TRX DAPS). TRX recently announced it had been selected by the U.S. Army to provide a next generation Dismounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) System (DAPS), the company said.
TRX Systems joins NAL Research and FreeFlight Systems within ACR Group's portfolio of companies delivering PNT solutions, the company said. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Contact: Nicholas Boushell, TRX Systems, (410) 507-8265, boushelln@trxsystems.com.
VinFast Taps HERE For In-Car Navigation
VinFast has announced that its first three smart electric car models VF e34, VF 8, and VF 9 will be deploying HERE Navigation for its connected in-vehicle navigation. The announcement, made at CES 2022, indicates that VinFast will also be integrating HERE’s software development kit (SDK) into its dedicated smartphone mobile application to deliver a seamless and smart driving experience, the company said.
HERE Navigation features multi-stop route planning based on the charge level of the car, as well as automatic addition of charging stops should drivers decide to make a re-route, the company said. The VF e34 electric cars are now available in Vietnam.
Contact: Camy Cheng, HERE Technologies, 65 9088 4127, Camy.cheng@here.com.
u-blox Rolls Out Two Modules
Thalwil, Switzerland-based u-blox rolled out the LENA-R8 series LTE Cat 1 module that features MQTT Anywhere and MQTT Flex connectivity. Users can choose between integrated or stand-alone GNSS, as well as CellLocate, the company said.
The company also introduced the LARA-R6 series, which u-blox says is the world’s smallest LTE Cat 1 module with global coverage.
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com, www-blox.com.
Hemisphere GNSS Rolls Out New OEM Board
Hemisphere GNSS announced another Vega heading and positioning OEM board using the Lyra II and Aquila chipsets. Vega 60 can be used to replace more expensive and lesser-abled 60-pin boards with either single or dual antenna capabilities, the company said. The designs can simultaneously track and process over 1100 channels from all GNSS constellations and signals including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, NavIC, SBAS, and L-Band, the company said.
Contact: Taylor Jones, Hemisphere GNSS, (480) 348-6380, press@hgnss.com, www.hgnss.com.
Trackive Rolls Out Cat Tracker
Tractive has announced its new LTE GPS pet tracker developed specifically for cats in North America. The Tractive cat tracker features GPS live tracking, heat mapping and location history for greater insights into where a cat roams and how long it spends in each location.
In addition, the tracker has activity and fitness monitoring and a seven-day battery life. Tractive GPS Cat LTE Tracker is attached by threading the cat’s collar through the device for a more secure fit, the company said. Tractive GPS Cat LTE Tracker costs $49.99, with a monthly subscription price of $6.49 for monitoring.
Contact: Amber Moore, for Tractive, amber@gmkcommunications.com.
TraceSafe Granted Patent for Tracking System
TraceSafe [TSF] has been granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its novel Position Tracking System. The patented technology enables continuous tracking and monitoring of electronic tags by achieving low-power consumption, the company said.
The company said the patent will reinforce its portfolio that includes energy-efficient wearables for patient tracking. TraceSafe's position tracking system reduces power consumption with controlled degradation in overall system performance such as location accuracy and frequency of location update, the company said.
Contact: Wayne Lloyd, TraceSafe, (604) 629-9975, wayne@tracesafe.io.
Embark Unveils Roadmap to Navigate Snowy Conditions Autonomously
Embark Trucks [EMBK] has announced that it created “a roadmap to develop and deploy technology” that would allow Embark-equipped trucks to operate autonomously in snowy conditions. Embark plans to use its patent-pending Vision Map Fusion (VMF) technology to enable Embark-equipped trucks to navigate snowy conditions autonomously by the end of winter 2022, the company said.
Embark says that many AV companies have built autonomous driving software that relies on HD maps to navigate the road. “This type of map-reliant AV software often fails in snowy conditions because it expects that the environment it senses will closely match what is in its maps, which may no longer be true after a snowfall,” the company said.
Contact: Misha Rindisbacher, press@embarktrucks.com, embarktrucks.com.
CenTrak Launches TruFinder Mobile App
CenTrak has announced the launch of its TruFinder mobile application with contact tracing capabilities and additional features for caregiver efficiency and community infection prevention. Available on Apple iOS and Android, the companion app represents the latest step in the ongoing development of the company's emergency alert and wander management system for senior living communities.
The app allows on-the-go users to quickly review the real-time location, as well as all past interactions, of residents, assets, and staff, the company said. By leveraging this data, the app's Location Tracing report enables leadership to view a complete history of any infected residents, the company said.
Contact: Heather Fretz, for CenTrak, hfretz@bnoinc.com.
Seiler Instrument Acquires Assets of Precision Midwest
St. Louis-based Seiler Instrument has acquired the assets of Precision Midwest to provide Trimble Geospatial products and solutions for Iowa, all of Northern Illinois, and the northwest counties of Lake and Porter, Indiana.
The asset purchase of Precision Midwest, located in Plainfield, Ill., will add to the existing Midwest presence of Seiler Geospatial for survey, GPS, robotics, Lidar, and software solutions, the company said.
Contact: Mark Jeffrey, Seiler Instrument, (314) 330-2314, mjeffrey@seilerinst.com, www.seilergeo.com.
People
Trimble [TRMB] has appointed Thomas Sweet to its Board of Directors, effective January 15, 2022. Sweet is chief financial officer (CFO) of Dell Technologies.
Polte has named Tim Newberg as Vice President of Sales. Newberg has 25 years of experience with sales and business development roles at Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Sequans, Rootmetrics and Sercomm, where he launched asset tracking applications.
Velodyne Lidar [VLDR] has named Ernest Maddock to its Board of Directors. From 2015-2018, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Micron Technology.
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