Intel announced that it has agreed to purchase a 15 percent ownership stake in HERE, a global provider of digital maps and location-based services, from HERE’s current indirect shareholders: AUDI, BMW and Daimler.
Two companies also signed an agreement to collaborate on the research and development of a highly scalable PoC architecture that supports real-time updates of high definition (HD) maps for highly and fully automated driving. Additionally, the two companies plan to jointly explore strategic opportunities that result from enriching edge-computing devices with location data.
The PoC architecture HERE and Intel plan to deliver, will be designed to help make autonomous driving as safe and predictable as possible. For example, today’s navigation technology can pinpoint a car’s location to within meters, but next generation, HD mapping supports localization to within centimeters, said Intel.
This will help vehicles precisely position themselves on the roadway to enable reliable autonomous driving functionality. HERE HD Live Map, HERE’s cloud service supporting vehicle automation, gives vehicles the ability to “see” obstacles beyond their immediate field of vision and receive real-time updates as environments change due to traffic, road conditions and other factors.
Intel will also work with AUDI, BMW and Daimler to test the architecture. Intel and HERE envision making the architecture broadly available across the automotive industry as a seamlessly integrated offering that simplifies and shortens time of development for automakers. By working with Intel, HERE aims to offer automakers a universal solution that reduces both complexity and long-term development costs.
Intel said it will nominate Doug Davis, senior vice president and general manager of the Automated Driving Group (ADG) at Intel, to HERE’s Supervisory Board of directors once the transaction is completed.
Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO
Cars are rapidly becoming some of the world’s most intelligent, connected devices. We look forward to working with HERE and its automotive partners to deliver an important technology foundation for smart and connected cars of the future.
Edzard Overbeek, HERE CEO
A real-time, self-healing and high-definition representation of the physical world is critical for autonomous driving, and achieving this will require significantly more powerful and capable in-vehicle compute platforms. As a premier silicon provider, Intel can help accelerate HERE’s ambitions in this area by supporting the creation of a universal, always up-to-date digital location platform that spans the vehicle, the cloud and everything else connected.
