HERE Technologies Names Nefkens CEO
Gets top job at largest mapping company…
After a lengthy search, HERE Technologies has appointed industry veteran Mike Nefkens as CEO. Nefknes, who most recently was with Boston Consulting Group, will relocated to company headquarters in Amsterdam.
Nefkens has executive experience in IoT, automotive, cloud services and other technologies for several international corporations. He was president and CEO of Resideo Technologies, a Honeywell HON 0.00%↑ spinoff with 13,500 employees. He was also president of HP’s Enterprise Services, among other companies.
Edzard Overbeek, who led the company for more than seven years, stepped down as the company’s CEO in April. The company’s board appointed Denise Doyle and Adeel Manzoor, the company’s chief data officer and CFO, respectively, as interim co-CEOs during the transition phase. Both will stay on in their respective roles at the company.
"I am honored to join HERE Technologies and work alongside an exceptional team of digital cartographers and geospatial data experts," Nefkens said, in a statement. “My commitment is to support and enable our customers, partners and developers, offering them the necessary tools to build and thrive in today’s world.”
Nefkens is taking over a company that has made inroads in the mapping industry, including its announcement of UniMap at CES in January. Despite heavy competition from such companies as Google GOOG 0.00%↑, Apple AAPL 0.00%↑, TomTom [TOM2] and others, HERE’S mapping platform is being used by Big Tech for location data and services. The company’s HD Map is powering Mercedes-Benz and BMW’s Level 3 AV systems and Intelligent Speed Assist functions.
HERE’s shareholders include a who’s who of automotive and tech companies: Audi AG, BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz AG, Intel Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT), Robert Bosch GmbH, Continental AG, and Pioneer Corp.
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Despite Recent Waymo and Cruise Setbacks, May Mobility Grabs $105 Investment
Autonomous vehicle companies have been getting hammered by the regulatory agencies lately, but May Mobility this week announced a $105 million Series D round. The round, led by Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Group, will advance the company’s AV growth in the United States, Canada and Japan.
Other investors include Toyota Ventures, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company, State Farm Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Cyrus Capital and Trucks Venture Capital. May Mobility's Series B and C were led by Toyota and SPARX Group. respectively. This latest round brings May Mobility's total funding to approximately $300 million to date, the company said.
NTT Group has acquired the exclusive rights to distribute May Mobility's autonomous vehicle technology throughout Japan. Both companies will work with Toyota to develop an autonomous driving ecosystem across several vehicle types, the company said. Unlike other competitors, May Mobility, which has given 350,000 AV rides, said it is focusing on business-to-government (B2G) and business-to-business (B2B) market strategies.
In other May Mobility news, the company has partnered with Aeva AEVA 0.00%↑ for its lidar sensors. The multi-year supply agreement provides 5-year volume commitments through 2028, with delivery starting this year and production ramping in 2025, the company said.
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Trimble and Skydio Integrate Technologies for Construction, Utilities and State Transportation Agencies
Skydio has partnered with Trimble TRMB 0.00%↑ to offer autonomous drone products in critical infrastructure industries for surveying, mapping and inspections. The partnership, announced at Trimble’s Dimensions user conference, is in the development stage, but will include Skydio’s drones with Trimble GNSS receivers and software, the companies say.
The companies recently announced that the Skydio X10 autonomous drone will be paired with Trimble’s Construction Cloud for construction and utility companies, and state transportation agencies. Skydio's flagship X10 drone, with an RTK GPS attachment, will be fully compatible with Trimble's GNSS receivers, the companies say. Customers will also be able to conduct PPK based corrections post-flight.
"Incorporating Skydio into our ecosystem augments our platform's capabilities, offering our customers a fully integrated, end-to-end workflow from data acquisition to analytics," said Aviad Almagor, Trimble’s vice \president of technology innovation, in a prepared statement. “Our customers are seeking such automated workflows to handle the vast amount of data and maximize its value through improved production and quality control processes.”
In other Trimble news, the Trimble Foundation Fund has partnered with The HALO Trust landmine-clearing organization to help expand its demining operations across Ukraine. The government of Ukraine estimates that 174,000 square kilometers of its land may be contaminated with landmines, unexploded ordinance and improvised explosive devices—roughly the size of Virginia, Maryland, and Connecticut combined.
Over the last 6 years, Trimble R1 and Trimble R2 GNSS receivers have been used by HALO in conjunction with Esri ArcGIS Survey123 software for the identification and clearance of landmines.
A new deployment of 255 high-precision Trimble DA2 GNSS receivers with Trimble Catalyst corrections service has been provided to HALO
In other Trimble Dimensions news:
Trimble and Ferguson today announced that Ferguson locations nationwide have joined the Trimble Supplier Xchange digital pricing and procurement network.
Trimble's Viewpoint Spectrum and Viewpoint Vista construction enterprise resource planning (ERP) software now includes automatic invoicing capability. The integration of Microsoft’s MSFT 0.00%↑ Azure AI Document Intelligence enhances automatic invoicing, the company said.
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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:
🌍 EU Fine-Tunes Plan to Launch Galileo Satellites on SpaceX. EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told a news conference the provisional contract with SpaceX was worth 180 million euros ($191.99 million).
🤞 Next-Gen GPS Ground System Expected To Come Online This Summer: Calvelli. “The Air Force’s space acquisition czar, Frank Calvelli, said today he expects the long-troubled Next-Generation Operational Control System (OCX) for the Space Force’s new GPS satellites to finally be up and running by June or July — more than a decade after its initially planned debut.”
🚛 Fleets Dogged by Labor Crunch and High Costs, According to Verizon Connect Report. “The use of asset tracking solutions has increased steadily over the last three surveys, climbing to 45 percent in this year’s survey.”
Maps:
📌 ArcGIS Platform Unveils Major Release With New Services. “Esri expanded and enhanced its location services offering available to developers via ArcGIS Platform, offering Places, Data Hosting, and an updated Basemap Styles service.”
📱 All New Google Maps Updates Coming to Android and iPhone. “Google GOOG 0.00%↑ says the updated colors will soon reach general availability, explaining that the facelift includes additional details, such as realistic buildings while navigating. Driving on highways also includes improved lane details, so you'll have more time to enter the right lane for the next exit.”
😮 Britons Go Map-Crazy, With Geographical Games and Books Becoming Bestsellers. “According to the software developer Benjamin Tran Dinh, his online game Metro Memory – which requires players to name as many of the 416 London [subway] stations as they can – has had more than 400,000 plays since it was launched two weeks ago.”
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Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
💲 Neom Fund Invests $100M in Pony.ai to Advance Self-Driving Vehicles in Mena. “The Neom Investment Fund, a newly formed arm of Saudi Arabia's mega-city Neom, has invested $100 million in autonomous vehicles solutions company Pony.ai. As part of the investment, a joint venture will be formed between Neom and California-based Pony.ai to develop, manufacture and deliver autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles and infrastructure, Neom said in a statement on Wednesday.”
😦 SFO Rebuffs Waymo — SF 'Guerilla Warfare' vs. Robotaxis Heats Up. “Having talked to a number of San Francisco public safety officials, they’re not thrilled with Waymo — but it’s hard to overstate the disdain they express for Cruise.”
🚙 Salesforce Announces Automotive Cloud Innovations for Connected Cars.
😯 Cruise Knew Its Self-Driving Cars Had Problems Recognizing Children — And Kept Them on the Streets. “According to internal materials reviewed by The Intercept, Cruise cars were also in danger of driving into holes in the road.”
🚘 Government Announces Self-Driving Legislation in King's Speech. “In a briefing document from Number 10, the Government says that the automated vehicles bill will unlock a “transport revolution” by enabling the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles.”
Financial:
✔ Airbus Bullish on Jet Output as Profits Override Space Charge.
✔ NextNav Reports Third Quarter 2023.
✔ MiX Telematics Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year. “Net subscriber additions of 47,400, bringing the total base to over 1,089,000 subscribers.”
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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.
TomTom's Road Analytics Products Available in Microsoft Azure Marketplace
TomTom [TOM2] has announced that Microsoft MSFT 0.00%↑ Azure customers can now purchase its Junction Analytics in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. TomTom Junction Analytics leverages historical and real-time traffic data based on anonymized speed data from more than 600 million connected devices worldwide, the company said.
Target markets for Junction Analytics are road authorities, highway agencies and traffic management centers. TomTom Road Analytics solutions run on Azure to take advantage of the scalability of Microsoft’s cloud-based services, the company said.
Contact: TomTom, mediarelations@tomtom.com, www.tomtom.com.
OMF Releases Latest Map and Data Updates
Overture Maps Foundation (OMF) has released its latest set of updates and data, which features improvements to the Overture transportation layer with engineering expertise and data from TomTom [TOM2] combined with enhanced open data from OpenStreetMap. One of Overture’s goals is to create a representation of the world’s road network, a core input into the $340−$400 billion dollar geospatial technology and location intelligence industry, OMF said. “Understanding how all these sections link together is what allows location tech companies to build routing algorithms, detailed maps and other location-based services that help millions of drivers navigate the world’s roads,” OMF said.
Contact: Overture Maps Foundation, www.overturemaps.org.
Taoglas Launches SynergyX MA 1559 Antenna
Taoglas has launched its SynergyX MA1559, a 9-in-1 next-generation permanent mount antenna. The GNSS antenna uses GPS/QZSS L1/L2/L5/L6, GLONASS G1/G2/G3, Galileo E1/E5a/E5b/E6, BeiDou B1/B2a/B2b/B3, NAVIC L5, as well as SBAS (WAAS/EGNOS/GAGAN/SDCM/SNAS) for centimeter-level positional accuracy, the company said.
Typical applications include autonomous driving, precision positioning for robotics, precision agriculture, inventory management and container tracking.
Contact: Taoglas, www.taoglas.com.
STMicroelectronics Rolls Out Modules
STMicroelectronics has launched the STM32WB09 wireless microcontroller that comes with the latest Bluetooth 5.3 software. ST also rolled out the STM32WB1MMC wireless module and B-WB1M-WPAN1 evaluation board.
The unit supports Bluetooth 5.3 capabilities, including direction and distance finding for accurate position detection, thereby enabling applications such as real-time locating, indoor positioning, item finding, and asset tracking, the company said.
Contact: Michael Markowitz, STMicroelectronics, (781) 591-0354, michael.markowitz@st.com.
HERE Helps Diwali Travelers
HERE Technologies is helping travelers heading to India’s Diwali holiday with traffic data and analytics. HERE has identified optimal departure times, historical traffic patterns, road conditions, and real-time data, the company said.
To access this year’s Diwali traffic insights in real-time, download the HERE WeGo app, available for both Android and iOS devices.
Contact: Camy Cheng, HERE Technologies, 65 9088 4127, camy.cheng@here.com.
Quectel Modules Achieve Safety Certification
Quectel Wireless Solutions has been awarded the ISO 26262:2018 Functional Safety Process Certificate by Bureau Veritas (BV). In addition, Quectel's LG69T (AB) automotive-grade GNSS module has received certification for meeting the ISO 26262 ASIL B metrics, which underscores the LG69T (AB)'s ability to fulfill functional safety requirements, the company said.
Quectel’s LG69T (AB) GNSS positioning module based on the STMicroelectronics Teseo APP platform. When combined with multiple positioning technologies such as Real-Time Kinematic and dead reckoning, this dual-frequency module can achieve centimeter-level positioning accuracy, the company said.
Contact: Quectel, media@quectel.com, www.quectel.com.
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BRINC Delivers First LEMUR 2 Drones to Emergency Responders
BRINC has announced the first deliveries of its flagship drone model, LEMUR 2, to customers in U.S. public safety agencies. These units will be used to de-escalate dangerous situations, assist in search and rescue missions, and improve first responder safety, the company said.
The drone features lidar, GPS-denied/no light position hold, thermal sensors and others.
Contact: BRINC, brincpr@mgroupsc.com, brincdrones.com.
TCarta Trident SDB Toolbox Featured in Ocean Mapping Project
TCarta Marine has delivered three satellite derived bathymetry (SDB) data sets to The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project. Students in Canada participating in a 2023 summer internship program created the SDB products for the entire coastline of Madagascar, Newfoundland, and two Canadian Arctic research areas, the company said.
Launched by The Nippon Foundation of Japan and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) program, Seabed 2030 seeks to inspire the complete mapping of the entire ocean floor by the end of the decade, the company said. TCarta’s Trident SDB Toolbox, software applications running within Esri ArcGIS Pro, is used to extract water depth measurements from remotely sensed imagery with machine learning and satellite lidar, the company said.
Contact: TCarta Marine, (303) 284-6144, info@tcarta.com, www.tcarta.com
Cavli Wireless at India Mobile Congress 2023
Cavli Wireless rolled out an LTE Cat 4 module at IMC 2023. It is equipped with the Qualcomm QCOM 0.00%↑ Location Suite Gen 9VT engine, supporting multi-constellation GNSS.
This LTE Cat 4 module features data rates with 150 Mbit/s downlink and 50 Mbit/s uplink with 2G fallback, the company said.
Contact: Ajit Thomas, Cavli Wireless, 91-79946 09995, ajit@cavliwireless.com , www.cavliwireless.com/
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People
Mortimer Downey, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation in the Clinton Administration and early champion of intelligent transportation systems, died in Fairfax, Va., on Nov. 2, 2023.
The Overture Maps Foundation (OMF) recently named Amy Rose as its first technical director.
PTV Logistics has appointed Elisabeth Kurek as CMO and Nico Brinkmann as chief human resources officer.
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