HERE Technologies and Mitsubishi Partner on Location Services for Autonomous Cars

According to their preliminary agreement, the companies aim to offer services to support vehicles with ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) on the road today right through to the fully autonomous cars of the future.

The initial focus is on providing services that, for example, would support smart lane-level guidance for vehicles based on real-time information about traffic conditions and incidents. They will also evaluate how information from vehicle sensors gathered by MELCO can be utilized for high-definition map updates.

HERE and MELCO intend to enable services initially for automotive customers in North America and Europe, before making them available more broadly.

“Location technology is at the core of the digital transformation happening right now across every industry and this has been the starting point for some very productive discussions between HERE Technologies and Mitsubishi Electric,” said Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies.

Isao Iguchi, Senior Vice President of MELCO, said: “Mitsubishi Electric is actively developing self-sensing driving technologies incorporating various peripheral-sensing technologies, and network-based driving technologies incorporating satellite system and high accuracy 3D mapping. We believe that our partnership with HERE Technologies will strengthen our global rollout of network-based technologies for extra-autonomous driving.”