Mapbox Delivers Navigation Enhancements in Toyota and Lexus Vehicles
Maps can be updated immediately
Many vehicles roll off production lines with maps that often need updating the minute they are on the road—forcing owners to use Google Maps or Waze. Not so much anymore as Toyota and Lexus are using Mapbox technology to deliver next-generation navigation features with push updates.
Toyota Motor North America plans to use the Mapbox Maps development kit that includes a map design that works with Toyota Motor’s newest multimedia system, which also has enhanced turn-by-turn navigation, the company said.
Toyota can push updates to vehicles in real time, through an owner’s Toyota Connect subscriptions, to provide the updated maps. In the future, as more vehicles are on the road with the system, the company says navigation software will be as easy as updating a smartphone.
Peter Sirota, Mapbox’s CEO, said that the navigation software is created in an iterative process, which required Toyota to have full control of the map design while being able to improve maps based on customer feedback.
A new car’s infotainment system is identified as the most troublesome feature—with smartphone connectivity coming in second, according to the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Initial Quality Study. Mapbox believes its navigation features, already in select Toyota and Lexus vehicles, alleviate the troublesome problems by providing data and design updates over the air.
UniBiz Now Owns Sigfox
A French court has appointed Singapore-based IoT service provider UnaBiz as the new owner of Sigfox, which had been in receivership and rehabilitation proceedings following massive net losses and debt.
Nine potential buyers made the Feb. 25 legal deadline to take over Labège, France-based Sigfox. They were Actility, Buffet Investment Services Consortium, Greybull Capital LLP, Heliot Europe Gmbh, Iwire Innovation Management Ltd, OTEIS France, Sentiens, UnaBiz, and Groupe Zekat for Sigfox SA.
Sigfox, a major IoT player, had its financial woes chronicled by Techcrunch and French Tech Journal. Sigfox posted a net loss of nearly $102 million on revenues of more than $27 million, with $132.8 million in debt, in its annual financial statement.
According to published reports, during a transition phase, Unabiz said it will conduct financial and operational assessments to protect Sigfox and its assets and technology. In addition, the company said it was committed to keeping the 110 remaining employees and its 16 workers from a Sigfox France subsidiary.
Sigfox was placed under a court’s protection from its creditors for six months. However, the company asked a Toulouse court to shorten this period to only three weeks. After that period ended, speculation whether Sigfox would have a new buyer or would just completely go out of business became a daily thought in the industry.
Jeremy Prince, Sigfox CEO, told Location Business News last month that the company sent a letter out to its operators to tell them about the potential investors.
UnaBiz, which was founded in 2015, is led by Henri Bong, a former Sigfox sales manager in Asia.
NGA 911 Partners With NextNav
NGA 911 has partnered with NextNav [NN] to provide vertical location to its public safety client base through the NextNav Pinnacle positioning network and delivered across a geospatially-powered ESInet domain.
NGA will be able to provide route floor-level vertical location data of incoming requests for service across its ecosystem and display the location in 2D and 3D formats, the company said.
“The visualization of vertical location is paramount in making z-axis data actionable for agencies and first responders. If the ESInet is not provisioned to natively accept and deliver this location data, PSAPs will not have the benefit of what all require – an accurate dispatchable location,” said Rob Clark, NextNav’s senior director of public safety.
The public safety market continues to be a strong one for NextNav, Clark said. “This continues to be a core focus for our team, and we’ve secured partnerships across the public safety community to help enhance the safety of emergency responders and callers,” he said. “Most recently, we signed an agreement with a top wireless carrier to bring z-axis capabilities to wireless 911 calls made through their network.”
While the company’s roots were formed by public safety markets, nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas where cityscapes are dominated by multi-story buildings, Clark said. “GPS was designed to deliver location intelligence for the X and Y-axis, but the world we live in is three-dimensional,” he said.
In other company news, NextNav has partnered with Widow Games, a gaming development company, to bring 3D geolocation capabilities to their applications to enable virtual experiences and leverage location verification. “3D geolocation technology is foundational to building the metaverse,” said Dan Hight, NextNav vice president of business development and partnerships, in a statement.
NextNav Pinnacle will be integrated into Widow Games’ Geopoly, a mobile game that couples buying, upgrading, and selling digital properties tied to the real world with real-time, live virtual events, the company said.
Contact: Mahmood Abu-Rubieh, LaunchSquad for NextNav, nextnav@launchsquad.com.
Companies Display Location Technology at AUVSI Xponential 2022
ORLANDO, Fla.—Although there was an absence of “big” news at the AUVSI Xponential conference, and most of the announcements were made elsewhere, several large companies displayed location technology for drones and other unmanned vehicles here.
Honeywell [HON] demonstrated several advanced alternative navigation technologies that ensure seamless navigation when GPS signals are blocked or unavailable. Honeywell, along with InfiniDome, which provided the anti-jamming GPSDome, demonstrated inertial navigation systems that showed improvement of position accuracy and integrity performance.
Honeywell did show off its HGuide o360 INS/GNSS navigator, which contains a dual-antenna, multi-constellation, RTK-capable GNSS receiver. Honeywell said its sensor blends the IMU, GNSS and Magnetometer data to deliver navigation service.
Another company at Xponential, Septentrio, partnered with UAV autopilot manufacturer MicroPilot for GNSS positioning modules. Septentrio’s mosaic modules and its AsteRx-m3 OEM board will support MicroPilot’s autopilot ecosystem’s positioning and orientation, the company said.
While the announcement was not made at the conference, Hexagon’s AutonomouStuff division publicized autonomy software that combines by-wire and sensors for navigation on Ford Transit vehicles.
The Ford Transit platform includes a drive-by-wire system for electronic control, GNSS positioning and Lidar and Radar. The technology was recently tested and validated during an ongoing project, the company said.
In one of the few land vehicle displays, Ottonomy.io showed off its delivery vehicles that are the first that navigate autonomously in both indoor and outdoor environments. Ottonomy.io said that new pilot projects are beginning at the Rome and Pittsburgh airports. More delivery pilots will roll out in 2022 across Europe, the Middle East, United States and Canada, the company said.
BMW Selects HERE Technologies for Real-Time Traffic Information
BMW plans to use HERE Technologies as its provider of real-time traffic information for its drivers in more than 70 countries. As part of the multi-year agreement, HERE will power BMW’s Connected Navigation Services (CNS), which are available on all BMW models.
HERE Real-Time Traffic, which is in the new BMW 7-Series, has been available to 750,000 BMW cars produced in 2018 and 2019 through an over-the-air update. HERE Real-Time Traffic offers information on traffic congestion with lane-level accuracy and potential road hazards ahead, with auto re-routing capabilities, the company said.
HERE also said its predictive routing capabilities are powering the “Learning Navigation” feature of BMW Maps as part of the BMW Operating System 8. The technology learns an individual driver’s mobility patterns to generate predictions for upcoming journeys, departure times, destinations, and routes, the company said.
“It provides drivers with relevant information about their journeys ahead, especially on routine routes for which drivers normally wouldn’t need turn-by-turn navigation,” said Gino Ferru, HERE EMEAR senior vice president and general manager, in a statement.
Contact: Jordan Stark, HERE, (312) 316-4537, jordan.stark@here.com, www.here.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.
💰 Enabling Location-based Process Automation: Our Investment in Kinexon. Kinexon announced a $130 Million Series A fundraise. Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. led the round with co-investments from BMW i Ventures and Telekom Innovation Pool, Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment fund. “This system is also designed to allow for flexible integration into a wide variety of other localization technologies such as GPS, RFID, and UWB.”
😲 ITSA - Not So Intelligent Transportation. “A senior General Motors executive speaking as part of a 5.9GHz forum at the recent ITSA event in Charlotte, N.C., said, of this legal action: “You lost half of the dedicated 5.9GHz spectrum because you did nothing with it for 20 years. If you don’t do something with it now you’re likely to lose the rest of it.”
😮 The Two Tech Giants That Should Build Google Maps and Waze Rivals. “But on the other hand, Apple Maps can hardly be considered a rival to Google Maps. And certainly not outside the United States, that is.” Though Apple Maps recently expanded to Germany and Singapore.
🛰 How Commercial Space Systems are Changing the Conflict in Ukraine. “From Hawkeye’s detection of GPS interference over Ukraine to satellite images showing a 40-mile-long Russian military convoy headed into the country, commercial space capabilities are providing real-time insight into Russian military activities and providing support to Ukrainian forces, humanitarian organizations and journalists covering the invasion.”
👍 Nissan's In-development Driver-assistance Technology Aims to Dramatically Enhance Collision Avoidance. “The next-generation Lidar is being integrated into Nissan’s system in collaboration with Luminar.”
🚍 A Self-driving Tech Developer Officially Open its Headquarters in Pittsburgh. “Aurora employs about 800 people in the Pittsburgh region and 1,600 company-wide.”
🚛 Ericsson report addresses transport and logistics disruptions with ZF and Orange Belgium. “Cellular IoT connections continue to grow exponentially and in the transport industry alone, connections are expected to grow to 292 million in 2030, paving the way for advanced features and capabilities.”
✔ Connexion Telematics : Quarterly Update.
✔ Nearmap [NEA] Has Record Quarter for its Government Portfolio in North America.
✔ Trimble First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call and Web Cast.
Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
Telefónica and K Fund’s Leadwind Completes 140 Million Euros Investment
K Fund, the fund manager of Leadwind, recently announced a 140 million euro investment closing. Launched last September by Telefónica together with K Fund, Leadwind was created to help public and private investors and investing in startups located in Southern Europe, with the priority in Spain and Latin America, the fund said. The target size of the fund is 250 million euro, with each company selected earning a 5-million-euro investment.
What3Words Partners With Pizza Hut, Others in April
What3Words partnered this month with Bellway Homes to pinpoint house locations so customers can always find their homes; Chronosoft, an incident management software company; Pizza Hut India for a store locator page for all 622 of its restaurants across the country; Howl, is a global app that allows dog walkers to notify their chosen contacts in case of an emergency; and SmartRoutes, an Irish delivery route planning software company, to pinpoint delivery locations.
Contact: What3Words, prteam@what3words.com, www.what3words.com.
Pointr and TRAX Analytics Launch Smart Cleaning at Airports
Pointr has partnered with facility management software company TRAX Analytics to improve and accelerate real-time cleaning operations at airports around the country. TRAX Analytics previously launched a Quality Management System called Clean + Inspect, which uses mobile applications and Bluetooth Low Energy beacons. This deal allows the company to leverage Pointr’s indoor location and digital mapping capabilities to improve the speed and effectiveness of custodial operations, the company said.
Contact: Marianne Slamich, Pointr, (978) 222-7929, marketing@pointr.tech, www.pointr.tech.
Sygic GPS Navigation Now Available on Android Automotive OS
The Sygic GPS Navigation app is available to download on Google Play within AAOS-powered vehicles. After downloading the Sygic GPS Navigation app and the selected maps, it runs on the vehicle’s main screen.
The app features navigation with detailed voice guidance, speed limit warnings, lane assistant, and predictive routing. Other highlights include sign recognition, dashcam, EV mode, and real view navigation. Sygic GPS Navigation for Android Automotive OS is currently available on vehicles from Volvo, Polestar, Renault, Chevrolet and GMC.
Contact: Sygic, www.sygic.com.
Hemisphere GNSS Gets Distro Agreement with Volvo Construction Equipment
Hemisphere GNSS has entered into a distribution agreement with Volvo Construction Equipment North America to add the Hemisphere S631 GNSS Survey Smart Antenna to its marketplace portfolio. The deal, which expands Hemisphere GNSS’ machine control footprint, allows Volvo CE’s to offer the S631 to its dealers and end users.
"Partnership between Hemisphere and Volvo Group companies goes back 15 years when we began to provide Volvo Penta our heading units for marine applications,” says Randy Noland, Hemisphers’ vice president, global sales and business development, in a statement.
Contact: Hemisphere GNSS, (480) 348-6380, press@hgnss.com, www.hgnss.com.
Esri Expands Colorado Operations
Esri has expanded the company's Colorado operations into a larger office space in Louisville. Esri relocated its Colorado regional office in Interlocken Business Park in Broomfield to the Colorado Tech Center in Louisville. The new facility accommodates the addition of more than 250 staff members who are work in these sectors: state, local, and national government; defense; commercial; utilities; education; and natural resources.
Contact: Jo Ann Pruchniewski, Esri, (301) 693-2643, jpruchniewski@esri.com.
Nestwave Port on Chipset Delivers GNSS
Nestwave and Goodix have recently added geolocation functionality to the Goodix NB-IoT GR851x NB-IoT system-on-chip (SoC) solution. A key objective of the integration is to deliver accurate positioning performance without compromising low-power, the company said.
The Nestwave technology is specifically designed to deliver the smallest, lowest power IoT geolocation solution using the minimum of components, the company said. Use cases include asset tracking, emergency vehicle tracking, smart agriculture, smart lighting, smart cities, smart metering and healthcare.
Contact: Nestwave, 33 188336910, www.nestwave.com.
Geotab and Surecam launch Enhanced Video Telematics for Fleets
Geotab and Surecam have partnered to provide fleet operators with new video and telematics capabilities. The latest version of the SureCam solution features a new method for capturing video footage from SureCam cameras using Geotab’s telematics device and rule-based system, which displays in the MyGeotab platform. The upgrade is available to new and existing users on the Geotab Marketplace.
Contact: Geotab, www.geotab.com.
GTX Distributor Signs Deal to Sell GPS SmartSoles
GTX Corp. [GTXO] has signed an agreement with Posifon AB, a Swedish IT/Telecom company focused on senior health care monitoring, to give municipalities and healthcare providers across Sweden access to supply its GPS SmartSole tracking solution and monitoring services.
“This is a significant development and opportunity to expand the sales and distribution of the GPS SmartSole to over 300 healthcare organizations, from memory care clinics to hospitals and social care organizations across Sweden,” said Andrew Duncan, GTX director, in a statement.
Contact: GTX, (213) 489-3019, Info@GTXCorp.com, www.gtxcorp.com; Henrik Essunger, VD Posifon AB, 46 70 3080954, henrik.essunger@posifon.se, https://posifon.se/gps-larm.
Orolia Provides ART Cards for Meta
Orolia is providing Atomic Reference Time (ART) Cards to support Meta's implementation of high precision timing protocols within its distributed timing infrastructure. The architecture of Orolia ART Cards is powered by the company's mRO-50 mini rubidium atomic clock technology, the company said. Orolia developed the ART Card in collaboration with the Meta engineering team for the Open Compute Project.
Contact: Charles Jones, Orolia, (585) 450-2889, charles.jones@orolia.com, www.orolia.com.
Raven Connected Partners With TELUS for Telematics Unit
Raven Connected has collaborated with TELUS to deliver video telematics and IoT vehicle connectivity in Canada. The initial focus will deliver video telematics to “underserved small and medium businesses,” the company said.
Starting this month, a co-branded video telematics solution, a technology that integrates cameras and analytics with fleet tracking, for fleets within Canada will be released, the company said.
Contact: Natalie Jackson, Raven Connected, marketing@ravenconnected.com
Cambridge Mobile Telematics to Power HUK-COBURG’s Digital Claims Services
Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) recently announced that it is powering the new automatic crash assistance and digital claims services offered by HUK-COBURG, Germany's largest insurer for private households. The programs use CMT’s AI-driven telematics platform, DriveWell, to automatically detect car crashes and notify an accident service reporting provider to organize rescue, the company said.
Contact: Matt Fiorentino, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, mfiorentino@cmtelematics.com.
Cipia Partners With DCT
Cipia [CPIA] has partnered with fleet telematics provider Digital Communications Technologies to integrate the Cipia-FS10 driver monitoring device on DCT's Pegasus IoT cloud platform using the Syrus 4G IoT Gateway. The availability of Cipia's DMS device will augment DCT’s fleet telematic offering, the company said. The Cipia-FS10 is a hardware and software solution offers an advanced in-cabin video telematics, real-time tracking and a driver monitoring system.
Contact: Liat Rostock, Cipia, liat.r@cipia.com, www.cipia.com.
People
Velodyne Lidar said that Marta Hall, the wife of founder David Hall, had resigned from its board. This comes after the couple sold two-thirds of its company stock.
Jobs
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Senior Product Marketing Manager. NavVis.
Digital Marketeer – Employer Brand. TomTom.
Strategic Account Manager. Pointr.
Marketing Specialist. Swift Navigation.
Inside Sales Representative. Swift Navigation.
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