Mapping Companies Launch Slew of Products, Partnerships at CES
HERE Technologies, Mapbox and TomTom court OEMs
LAS VEGAS—Among dozens of mobility and auto companies at this year’s CES trade show, mapping companies took the lion’s share of news with product and service rollouts and partnerships.
In one of the CES announcements, HERE Technologies and Uber UBER 0.00%↑ have extended their partnership to punch-up Uber’s mapping capabilities for rideshare and food deliveries. The agreements calls for HERE to provide location-aware tools and functions to the Uber platform for accurate drop-off and pick-up points at locations, including airports and stadiums.
New CEO Mike Nefkens, who said that HERE had its best financial year ever in 2023, told Location Business News that company will focus on its strengths—and one of them is ride sharing. “We are winning in ride share. Lyft has been a partner and now Uber,” he said.
Another company announcement at CES was its collaboration with Bosch and Daimler Truck AG on advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) technology. Daimler Truck’s Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC) will be powered by the HERE ADAS Map and Bosch’s Electronic horizon software to assess roadway topography, curvature, slope, intersections, traffic signs, speed limits and driving rules.
Nefkens, who served as president of HP Enterprise Services and led 110,000 employees, said Intelligent Speed Assistance, which will be required for all new cars in the European Union sold after 2024, has been a growth area for the company.
Other HERE announcements at CES include:
HERE has launched Advanced Traffic Patterns to help improve planning, routing and delivery across first-to-last-mile delivery.
Launched EV Range Factors aimed at reducing driver range anxiety with improved on-route battery range calculations.
HERE’s collaboration with Lotus to power Emeya, the car maker’s new supercar EV, with the HERE Navigation solution.
Siemens’ Simulytic is using HERE’s HD Live Map to simulate autonomous driving scenarios for insurance risk calculations.
HERE says it simplified automaker access to advanced map data by providing a single map for different vehicle automation levels across vehicle models.
Mapbox Launches Autopilot Services, AI Features in Navigation SDK
Another mapping company, Mapbox, is offering its Mapbox Autopilot Services integration to OEMs for ADAS, Autopilot Map, 3D Live Navigation, and MapGPT technologies.
Mapbox also rolled out AI Features in its new Navigation SDK that are alternatives to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Mapbox Navigation SDK ships with MapGPT, an AI-powered voice assistant that allows drivers to control their vehicle's navigation, entertainment and streaming services, autopilot, and control systems, in addition to accessing capabilities from companies like OpenTable, The Weather Company, and TripAdvisor, the company said.
“You ask the voice assistant how to play Blackjack in Vegas, talk about golf or make a dining reservation. It’s a fully embedded experience that allows a natural conversation,” said Peter Sirota, Mapbox CEO. “In the future, we have a lot of plans for future innovation on top of location. Mapbox is not just a map—it’s voice, ADAS, Autopilot services.”
At CES, Mapbox announced that they were collaborating with Hyundai Autoever to incorporate MapGPT into Hyundai Autoever’s digitally enhanced vehicles.
Before CES, Mapbox partnered with BMW Group for a navigation system featuring an immersive 3D map for the automaker’s BMW/MINI Operating System 9. The company also partnered with Toyota to provide digital maps for its car navigation system.
“Toyota wants us to build a different experience. The great thing about the partnership is that the map has the ability to be quickly updated,” Sirota said.
TomTom Partners With Mitsubishi Electric
TomTom [TOM2] and Mitsubishi Electric announced at CES that they are integrating technologies for new automated driving solutions. TomTom’s HD Map will power Mitsubishi Electric’s High-Definition Locator hardware, which not only uses GPS, but Japan’s quasi-zenith satellites (QZSS).
“With the Mitsubishi device, more precise location is possible, with differential GPS, which is better for urban canyons. What’s also important is know what the road going to do ahead as well as the lanes,” said George de Boar, TomTom global director marketing. “Mitsubishi integrates our ADAS map to enable an off-the-shelf solution for car manufacturers so they can be used in the [electronic control units].”
The company, before CES, announced a partnership with Microsoft $MSFT for an integrated, AI-powered conversational automotive assistant for infotainment, location search, and vehicle command systems. The solution, which is built into TomTom’s Digital Cockpit, integrates Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to take advantage of large language models, the company said.
“It’s a demonstrable solution. It solves a problem in the electric vehicle space because while drivers want to go from A to B, sometimes they have to go from A to a charging station or even dinner, before they get to B,” said Paul Hesen, TomTom vice president product management. “Having a complex interaction not by voice is asking for trouble—we solve that problem. We are discussing the service with OEMs to introduce it into their cars.”
Hesen said that TomTom is focusing on its Orbis map platform in 2024, which now features 86 million kilometers of transportation networks. “We are focusing on launching Orbis for developers. We are beyond the quality of the old map system—our new map is very immersive,” he said “Providing people with maps for EV is also important for use, particularly because people still have charging anxiety. Lane-based navigation is also going to be big this year.”
Editor’s Note: See full CES coverage in our next issues (Thursday, Jan. 18).
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House Committee Accuses Quectel of Improper Chinese Government Relationships, Company Blasts Back
Quectel Wireless Solutions has been accused by a U.S. House Select Committee of having “problematic relationships” with the Chinese Communist Party and its military. In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, said Quectel’s relationships with a civil-military fusion arm of the Chinese government has been a growing concern.
Gallagher, Krishnamoorthi, and FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel last year said they were concerned about the “Chinese Communist Party’s ability to potentially weaponize internet modules made by Quectel and other PRC firms to infiltrate, track, or sabotage American devices.”
In the letter, the lawmakers request that Austin and Yellen place Quectel on a Defense Department list of 'Chinese military companies' and a Treasury Department list of prohibited investments.
For its part, Quectel blasted back at the Select Committee, saying it’s an independent company traded on the Shanghai stock exchange. “We are disappointed to see continued and false allegations from the Select Committee on China about Quectel and its supposed cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Quectel is not owned, controlled or directed by the CCP or the PLA,” said Norbert Muhrer, Quectel president and chief sales officer.
Muhrer said that the Select Committee’s call to blacklist Quectel has no impact except to block U.S. investments in the company’s securities. “Quectel would not be barred from selling any of its products, in other words, would not be blacklisted. The committee’s misuse of the term is causing needless irritations with customers we are serving well,” he said.
Quectel hired Finite State to perform independent audits and penetration tests of Quectel’s modules in July 2023. The company said it shared results, in September, showing that its products exceeded industry standards.
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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:
🛴 Electric Scooter Company Bird Files for Bankruptcy. “The electric scooter company Bird, once valued at $2.5 billion by investors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida federal court. Bird said it will use the bankruptcy proceeding to facilitate a sale of its assets, which it expects to complete within the next 90 to 120 days.” The company used u-blox’s ZED-F9R dead reckoning module with centimeter-level sidewalk mapping.
💰 Woolpert Awarded $13M Contract to Collect Bathymetric Lidar Data. “The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has tasked Woolpert with acquiring bathymetric survey data using lidar technologies to support the Florida Seafloor Mapping Initiative (FSMI)”
😠 NATO Nation Hit By 'Unprecedented' GPS Attack. “Disturbances in GPS navigation signals have been observed in parts of NATO's newest member Finland, it has been reported.”
🛰 China Launches New Beidou Satellites.
🌎 Maxar Wins Contract To Provide 3D Imagery of Indo-Pacific Region. “Maxar Technologies announced Jan. 4 it secured a contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide advanced satellite imagery and data for 3D maps and models.”
🤞 The Sensors in Those Self-Driving Cars Have Become an International Dispute. “The domestic lidar industry is mounting a lobbying offensive against a leading Chinese rival that’s stepping up its own PR game.”
👍 Satellite Navigation Startup Trustpoint Announces Partnership With SpiderOak. “Chris DeMay, founder and chief operating officer of TrustPoint, said the company selected SpiderOak’s OrbitSecure software to ensure “cybersecurity, mission resilience and data reliability.” “
😐 Google Moves to End Geofence Warrants, a Surveillance Problem It Largely Created. “Law enforcement have long tapped users' location data hoarded by tech giants.”
Maps:
👍 Google Maps Just Got a Major Upgrade for Drivers in Big Cities. “3D buildings have been available in the Google Maps app for a while in the layers tab (just tap the Layers icon, then 3D). But they haven't appeared while you're in navigation mode and traveling between two points – until now.”
🤔 The One Feature I Hope Google Maps Copies From Apple Maps in 2024. “Waze is the best example. Thanks to the crowdsourcing engine, which allows users to send traffic reports for hazards like accidents, traffic jams, speed traps, and potholes, the application can generate warnings for other motorists.”
😐 TomTom Partially Stops Selling GPS Navigators As Mobile Apps Are Unstoppable. “It's not a secret that the days of GPS navigators are already numbered, but TomTom, one of the biggest navigation companies and one of the few still investing in this product category has recently decided to partially quit the business and focus on what brings home the bacon.”
🗺 Mapbox: A Year in Review 2023.
🌎 2023 ArcGIS Online Year in Review.
👌 Next-Generation of Cloud-Based Google Maps Styling Now Generally Available. “You can now tailor the map across zoom levels to focus on the most relevant information at a particular zoom level. For instance, you can make all the map features lighter at a specific zoom level or add custom markers at another zoom level.”
😉 The Best and the Worst Google Maps Updates in 2023.
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Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
😦 GM, Parent Company of Cruise, Sues San Francisco for $121M, Saying It Was Wrongly Taxed. “General Motors GM 0.00%↑, the parent company of troubled self-driving car firm Cruise, is suing San Francisco, saying the city improperly overcharged the company more than $100 million over seven years by miscalculating its tax bill.”
✔ Samsung and Hyundai Are Teaming Up To Add SmartThings to Cars.
🙁 Cruise Imploded in 2023. Can the Robotaxi Industry Recover in the New Year?Alain Kornhauser expressed wariness about Waymo’s airport ambitions. “There are other people that can get people to the airport,” he scoffed. “The Uber and Lyft drivers can do that, OK?”
🤔 Waymo Has 7.1 Million Driverless Miles — How Does Its Driving Compare to Humans? “Waymo analyzed 7.13 million fully driverless miles in three cities — Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — and compared the data to human driving benchmarks to determine whether its cars were involved in fewer injuring-causing and police-reported crashes.”
🤦♂️ San Francisco Police Officers Can't Give Traffic Tickets to Autonomous Vehicles.
Drones:
🛩 More And More Russian Vehicles Have Drone-Jammers. Ukrainian Drones Blow Them Up Anyway. “But the Russians’ jammers probably are tuned to broadcast signal-blocking noise over a wide band of different frequencies in order to cover all the different frequencies Ukrainian drone-operators might use.”
📌 Researchers Test Novel Drone Navigation Technology in an Active Japanese Tunnel Construction Site.
🌍 Geofencing and Its Role in Layered Counter Drone Solutions.
Financial:
💲 Susan Bostrom, a director at Samsara IOT 0.00%↑ executed a sale of 20,000 shares of the company's stock, as reported in a SEC Filing. The transaction was carried out at an average price of $35.22 per share, indicating a total sale amount of $704,400.
😐 CalAmp Reports Earnings Results for the Third Quarter and Nine Months.
Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
CalAmp Closes $45 Million Term Loan
CalAmp CAMP 0.00%↑ recently announced the closing of a $45 million strategic financing with Lynrock Lake Master Fund LP. The financing is in the form of a term loan maturing in November 2027, the company said. Lynrock is an existing holder of a large majority of CalAmp’s 2.00 percent Convertible Senior Notes maturing in August 2025, the company said.
Contact: Mark Gaydos, CalAmp, mgaydos@calamp.com.
U-blox Launches Wi-Fi Module
Thalwil, Switzerland-based u-blox [UBXN] has launched the JODY-W6 dual-band Wi-Fi 6E module with Bluetooth 5.3, including LE Audio. Automotive use cases include infotainment and navigation, advanced telematics, as well as OEM telematics, the company said.
The module is available with two or three antennas. Upon request, it can also integrate an LTE filter, the company said.
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com, www.u-blox.com.
Combain Partners With Tovek
Czech analytics solutions provider Tovek recently partnered with Combain to expand geolocation options on Tovek’s platform. Through the partnership, customers can leverage geolocation for improved visibility of objects of interest, supply chain optimization, and enhanced emergency response times, the company said.
Contact: Combain, www.combain.com.
Valeo and Applied Intuition Partner to Provide Digital Twin Technology for ADAS Simulation
Valeo has partnered with Applied Intuition to provide a digital twin platform for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) sensor simulation. The joint solution will allow automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to bring ADAS features to market faster, the company said.
Valeo and Applied Intuition’s platform will provide OEMs with a digital twin database representing locations all around the world, the company said. Using the digital twins in Applied Intuition’s sensor simulation product, Spectral, OEMs can create more accurate simulations than using traditional simulation methods, the company said.
Contact: Applied Intuition, https://appliedintuition.com.
CerebrumX and One Step GPS Partner
CerebrumX has partnered with One Step GPS to leverage its AI-driven Augmented Deep Learning Platform with One Step GPS’ suite of fleet monitoring tools. The companies say the partnership will deliver real-time vehicle tracking, driver monitoring, quick vehicle dispatching, fuel cost monitoring, vehicle service reminders, custom reporting, and more solutions to optimize fleet performance.
Contact: Erik Heath, CerebrumX Labs, (734) 747-0203, connect@cerebrumx.ai, www.cerebrumx.ai.
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Spectaire Holdings Tech Integrated With Geotab’s Telematics
Spectaire Holdings SPEC 0.00%↑ says its air quality monitoring and emissions reduction technology will be integrated with Geotab’s network of more than 4 million connected vehicles. Through Geotab's open API access, Spectaire clients can merge the emissions data from AireCore with telematics data from Geotab, the company said. More than 50,000 Geotab customers can use Spectaire's AireCore system within their existing telematics framework, the company said.
Contact: Chris Grossman, Spectaire, cgrossman@spectaire.com, www.spectaire.com.
REYAX Technology Launches GNSS Module
REYAX Technology has launched the RYS352A GNSS antenna module. Typical applications include industrial tracking and telematics, automation, and monitoring, the company said.
REYAX RYS352A is a multi-GNSS module that also supports SBAS, WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS GAGAN, and AGNSS. RYS352A features an integrated antenna.
Contact: REYAX Technology, 886-2-2627-2777, sales@reyax.com, www.reyax.com.
AirSage Reaffirms Accuracy of its LBS Data, Despite Market Changes
AirSage said it “reaffirms the continued accuracy and reliability of its LBS data, despite recent market changes that have impacted data availability.” In a recent study, AirSage examined three different locations of highway closures, including traffic conditions with post-crash event conditions using its cleansed data panel. The results showed expected outcomes to the crash events with zero outliers, the company said.
Contact: Clare Carmody, AirSage, (404) 809-2499, ccarmody@airsage.com, www.airsage.com.
Fleet Management Systems Will Reach 2.4 Million Units in Australia and New Zealand
The number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Australia and New Zealand is expected to reach more than 2.4 million units by 2027, according to a Berg Insight report. The report, Fleet Management in Australia and New Zealand, says the top-15 players in the region together account for over 60 percent of the active units on the market, and more than a third is represented by the top-5 alone. Berg Insight ranks Teletrac Navman, EROAD and MTData as the largest providers of fleet management solutions in Australia and New Zealand.
Contact: Johan Fagerberg, Berg Insight, 46 31 711 30 91, johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com.
People
Industry veteran John Moscatelli passed away in December. Moscatelli held fleet management executive positions at Sprint-Nextel, AT&T and others.
ORBCOMM has named Sameer Agrawal as CEO.
CalAmp CAMP 0.00%↑ has announced that Chris Adams will be joining the company as president and CEO.
Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) announced Melissa Wade, with Aurora Innovation, is chair of the trade association’s board of directors.
Laura Chace, president and CEO, ITS America, has been named a member of the new U.S. Department of Transportation Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC).
Dan Hight was named vice president, advertising and media partnerships at Placer.ai.
Denny Reinert has been named vice president of sales at Mappedin.
Michael O'Shea has joined MOTER Technologies as chief sales officer.
Roadzen RDZN 0.00%↑ named Jean-Noël Gallardo as CFO.
AiRISTA has named Diederik Houban as vice president of product management.
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