Introducing the HERE mobile white label app

HERE mobile white label app

HERE MapCreator

Αγαπητοί χρήστες των χαρτών και των εφαρμογών της HERE,

Θα θέλαμε να σας ενημερώσουμε ότι το πρόγραμμα διαδικτυακής χαρτογράφησης της HERE, MapCreator, έχει ανανεωθεί, και περιέχει νέες λειτουργίες και χαρακτηριστικά. Σας προσκαλούμε να εισέλθετε στο Mapcreator και να ενημερώσετε τον χάρτη με αλλαγές/προσθήκες στο οδικό δίκτυο, σημεία ενδιαφέροντος, κυκλοφοριακές ρυθμίσεις, μονοδρομήσεις, αρίθμηση/ονομασία οδών και άλλα χαρακτηριστικά. Υπάρχει εκπαιδευτικό υλικό στο site του MapCreator για το πώς μπορείτε να προχωρήσετε σε αυτές τις αλλαγές. 

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Αναβάθμιση χαρτών HERE Maps για iOS & Android v. 80.30.67.153

Περισσότερα στο WWW.NaviPhone-Hellas.gr

The future of mobility, according to car users

Autonomous cars will make travel a lot safer and easier than it is at present. There’s also a huge opportunity for carmakers, old and new, to create products and services that meet people’s end-to-end mobility needs.

One way to think about our self-driving future is to divide the likely new offerings into either autonomous Car-as-a-Service (CaaS) or autonomous Car-as-a-Product (CaaP). Both together are envisaged as parts of our future mobility mix.

Autonomous CaaP is an autonomous vehicle you would own. In recent HERE research with car users in the US and Germany (also explored here and here), people imagined they’d use these vehicles in much the same way as existing privately owned cars. The top expected uses (in order) were: commuting and the school-run, visiting friends and family, shopping, holidays and trips, and for evenings out.

Autonomous CaaS may sound like a strange new thing from the future, but we’ve had Cars-as-a-Service for a very long time, in the form of taxis, now joined by various other technologically enhanced car-sharing and ride-sharing models. When they become self-driving, the most-expected uses are very similar: commuting and school-runs, evenings out, holidays and trips, shopping and then travel to airports and train stations.

How we will change

The switch to autonomous vehicles will be gradual, of course, but 58 percent of respondents thought autonomous CaaP would potentially replace their privately owned ‘manual’ vehicle, and to a lesser extent, also existing taxi, company car, public transport and ride-sharing options. When it comes to autonomous CaaS, people again thought that privately owned vehicles would be the main transport mode to be replaced, followed by taxis, company cars, public transport and ride sharing.

Click on the image to download this infographic in PDF format

So, the profile of mobility and the nature of our roads is very likely to change significantly. Currently, most people in the US and Germany use personal or company vehicles, along with ride-sharing, to get around. In the future, 42 percent of Americans and 39 percent of Germans said they thought they’d be using either autonomous CaaP or CaaS instead.

Partly autonomous cars are expected to be available for purchase by as early as 2020, according to public statements from carmakers. These initial offerings are expected to be at SAE Level 3, where human drivers will mostly be hands-free, but able and expected to intervene at some points. (The scale goes up to Level 5, described as ‘full automation’). Initially, they may be ultra-premium vehicles, but as with every other technological improvement, they will eventually become standard fit solutions.

No need to wait

The level of autonomy achieved, and also the level of adoption, will significantly change our roads for the better. ADAS features already available today have been proven to reduce the number of accidents and increase traffic efficiency. Subaru, for example, recently released data showing that vehicles fitted with its EyeSight technology (a combination of different ADAS features) were 60 percent less likely to be involved in accidents than those without the technology.

The benefits of automation are already arriving, in other words: we won’t have to wait the 20-50 years until autonomous cars are expected to become universal, though the benefits will increase and accelerate over time.

Whether delivered as CaaS or CaaP, autonomous vehicles will yield these positive results. However, carmakers and others hoping to exploit this opportunity should remain aware that people like to be able to have choices and that new modes need to fit as seamlessly as possible with their requirements to attract adoption. Manufacturers who strategically aim to deliver both autonomous CaaS and CaaP offerings will be able to meet more people’s demands for future mobility.

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Οδηγίες Χρήσης του HERE WeGo στο Samsung Gear S3

We launched HERE WeGo for the Samsung Gear S3 towards the end of 2016, offering simple directions for both pedestrians and drivers. Read on to find out how to set up and get the most out of HERE WeGo for the Gear S3.

The latest version of HERE WeGo for the Gear S3 provides comprehensive navigation on the move, and it even caches map details so searches and information can be retrieved quicker using less data.
You’ll need to sync the Gear S3 with your Samsung smartphone to get started, and you’ll also need your phone nearby for navigation itself, as the wearable currently depends on a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone for a precise GPS fix.
If you haven’t already paired your Gear S3, tap the settings option and pick new phone. The watch will perform a light reset, clearing any stored information and preparing it for a new connection. Using your smartphone, download and install the Gear Manager app, and once you’ve opened the app, pick ‘Connect New Gear’ and select the Gear S3 from the list of devices. Confirm the pairing codes to proceed.

As soon as you’ve hooked up your Gear S3 to your Samsung smartphone, you’ll be able to use your smartphone to search for HERE WeGo in the Samsung app store. Tap to download the app, and it’ll automatically download and install on your Gear S3. You can even press open on your phone once it’s downloaded, with the app then opening automatically on your smartwatch for the first time.
You can also open HERE WeGo by scrolling through the applications using the control bezel on your Samsung Gear. Once you’ve opened HERE WeGo, you’ll see a circular map highlighting your location. You can pinch to zoom, and you can also zoom in and out using the bezel.

Press the route icon at the bottom of the display to bring up the search screen. Tapping the display lets you enter the destination using a small but usable T9 keypad, and you’ll be offered different types of navigation. You can currently pick walking or driving options, and the app will display estimated arrival times for each.
If the idea of typing out the destination on a small alphanumeric keypad fills you with dread, you can also tell the Gear S3 where you want to go. From the search screen, rotate the bezel to switch through different search options until you see the voice control page. Your Gear S3 is listening, so simply tell it where you want to go.
Once you’ve picked a destination and told the watch whether you’re walking or driving, the Gear S3 offers an overview of the route, showing a small map. Tap the button at the bottom of the screen to start the navigation.

Keeping things as simple as possible, and not wanting to overcrowd the compact display or prove too distracting for drivers, HERE WeGo for the Gear S3 provides turn by turn navigation in the form of a series of directions and large arrows. All you have to do is turn when the watch tells you to, with a simple glance telling you all you need to know.
Swipe to the right or press the back button on the Gear S3 to stop the navigation, and the app will switch back to map mode.
The next time you use the app, you’ll also see your previous destinations highlighted in the search function, making it a lot quicker to get home or to favoured destinations in future. And that’s all you need to know to get fast and easy navigation at a glance, without ever having to remove your phone from your pocket or use your hands along the way.
Wanting to offer the best possible navigation experience for wearables, we’re looking at extending the features of HERE WeGo for the Gear S3. We are also looking into the possibility of adding offline navigation to the app because we believe that wearables are really powerful if they take you wherever you want to go.

CES 2017: Journey to new dimensions with HERE

HERE Open Location Platform

Intel is HERE’s new investor and partner on autonomous cars and IoT tech

Fresh from announcing Navinfo, Tencent and GIC as new shareholders last week, HERE today welcomes global technology leader Intel as a new investor in the company.

In conjunction with its purchase of a 15% stake in HERE from Audi, BMW and Daimler, Intel will also collaborate with us to further its efforts in autonomous driving and to build location services that can fuel the continued growth of cloud computing and the Internet of Things.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, after obtaining regulatory approvals.

Advanced in-vehicle computing

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 capable in-vehicle computational power.

As a premier silicon provider, Intel can help accelerate our 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.

Always up-to-date HD maps for cars

In our automotive collaboration with Intel we plan to jointly research and develop a highly scalable proof-of-concept architecture that supports real-time updates of high definition (HD) maps for highly and fully automated driving.

The architecture will be designed to help make autonomous driving as safe and predictable as possible and it will enable services such as HERE HD Live Map. Intel will also work with Audi, BMW and Daimler to test the architecture.

By working with Intel, we aim to offer automakers a universal technology solution that reduces both complexity and long-term development costs. Intel also provides expertise in developing and optimizing hardware, which will be fundamental to moving cloud-based algorithms to in-vehicle architectures.

Internet of Things

This same expertise will support our strategy to connect multiple industries beyond automotive, such as in Internet of Things where location algorithms and location-based services are increasingly becoming embedded into connected devices. Together with Intel, we intend to explore other potential collaborative opportunities spanning next-generation cloud analytics, IoT applications, machine learning, augmented reality and more.

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HERE Predictive Traffic (video}

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Ανοίγοντας τον δρόμο στα αυτόνομα οχήματα!

HERE MAPS - Ανοίγοντας τον δρόμο στα αυτόνομα οχήματα!

What is the key to ensuring the worldwide acceptance of self-driving cars? Is it the data-driven services they use? Or the level of road information they have access to? While both of these are vital, trust from both drivers and pedestrians that autonomous vehicles are safe and can be relied upon is equally important.

 

If you are crossing the road, what do you do? Eight out of ten people seek eye contact with the driver to ensure that they’re safe to cross the street. With an autonomous car this is impossible. Well, until now.

Semcon, a Swedish company which works on both digital and physical product development, has created a concept of a self-driving car which interacts with pedestrians and drivers by smiling. We spoke with Karin Eklund, Head of User Experience at Semcon to find out more:
“The Smiling Car is a concept that we’ve been working on for some years now. When autonomous cars started becoming more sophisticated, we noticed that for the most part people were focusing on the interaction between the car and the driver.
“We then realised that this can’t be the only focus, and that the people in the environment around the car had to be taken into consideration.”

Road test

 In order to create the concept of the Smiling Car, the Semcon team had to investigate the way pedestrians reacted to autonomous vehicles in traffic. Karin says, “We wanted to see how people would cross the road if the car letting them through was autonomous. How will the person know it’s safe? Do they know that the car has seen them?”

This test, which used a faux-autonomous car with rigged cameras to see how pedestrians would react, resulted in an amusing but informative video. People were completely unsure about the intentions of the autonomous vehicle, and trepidation and fear was the order of the day when crossing a road.
Indeed, non-autonomous vehicles have break lights, indicators, and the reactions of the driver to give cues and comfort to people around the car. Karin explains how they tried to mirror this with a driverless vehicle:
“The basis for the concept was, how do we let people know that the car has seen them, and that it’s safe? We needed a means of communication that was universal, letting people know that the car has registered their presence in a clear way, that’s obvious to everyone. Everyone needs to feel safe, so we wanted to provide a human touch.”

Cheshire car

 

This lead to the development of the Smiling Car – a means of expression universal enough to work, wherever it’s used. The Smiling Car would let pedestrians know that it’s safe to cross by, you guessed it, smiling. How, though, would this work?




Karin explains: “The Smiling Car would work using radar, and through data collection points in the city. The latter is because the car not only has to interact with pedestrians, but also understand the road networks and other autonomous cars and drivers on the road.”
“With such a huge number of data points all around us, we’d have to look at how the vehicle could combine these in clever ways in order to make smart decisions. This is a challenge, but we’re working on it.”
Karin describes the other challenges that the team faced when developing the Smiling Car: “People are unpredictable! When developing technology, you know what you have to do, but making it safely interact with people who are unpredictable is difficult.”
“Another challenge is that, in order for this to work, there has to be a lot of interaction between different systems within the vehicle, and this technology is growing increasingly complex and communicating in new ways all the time. This can lead to complexities and poses a challenge for developers.”

In transition

 

The transition to self-driving cars will, of course, see a degree of debate. Karin stresses that when people aren’t used to a technology there is a lack of trust to begin with and that the people behind the technology have to work hard to gain the trust of the user. She adds:
“However, when this level of trust is achieved, and the technology is accepted, people can’t imagine their lives without it.”



Indeed, Karin goes on to explain that by using human expressions, Semcon hopes to help drive this
widespread adoption. She uses the example of self-propelled lawnmowers, which are often made to look less machine-like in order to gain trust.
She adds, “A level of familiarity inspires trust, which means you’re more likely to use it. You’re also less likely to leave it out in the rain!”
When asked on the wider implications of the Smiling Car, Karin concludes:
“It’s very easy for developers to focus on the tech and the people using it, while forgetting about bystanders who are also affected. What’s most important is finding a universal way for automotive cars to communicate, not only amongst themselves and the driver, but with everyone else, too.”
“A balancing act is required. Humans are just as important as the technology, and we should never forget that.”

HERE Real-Time Traffic improves safety and makes life easier for drivers

Following the announcement of HERE’s new services powered by sensor data from multiple car makers, we are taking a closer look at each of the services and how they will impact drivers, and the wider effect they can have on the automotive industry. In this instalment, we take a look at the updated HERE Real-Time Traffic service.

We spoke with Carrie Cox, Senior Product Marketing Manager on the HERE automotive team, who helped to develop the service.

“We recently announced the launch of three new services, as well as a significant update to HERE Real-Time Traffic service. These enhancements that were made as part of the next-gen service announcement are really benefiting both current and future customers.”

Data-driven

The updated service represents improvements across the board, with more accurate insights into traffic status and disruptions being made available quicker than ever, and with better coverage. Carrie tells us more about how these features are being powered:

“First, we’re getting GPS probe data and, thanks to the consortium of car makers (BMW, Audi and Mercedes), we have access to more probe data, which helps us to make our flow data more precise and more granular, particularly on lower-class arterial roads”

“Second, we now have access to the sensor data of these car makers. What we’re integrating into HERE Real-Time Traffic service is the hard-brake sensor, which picks up a sharp deceleration in the car.”

Carrie explains how the GPS data available helps to identify traffic jams and when vehicles are slowing down for an obstruction, but stresses that this sensor data helps to identify wide moving jams – essentially severe traffic jams that are building very rapidly – much more quickly and with a higher degree of accuracy than ever before.

Faster detection of hard-braking events allows us to deliver Traffic Safety Warnings more quickly – alerting cars in the area that they need to slow down, improving safety on the roads.

Aiding autonomy

Carrie also mentions that the service has one eye on the future and, in-particular, the autonomous vehicle. She explains:

“This data, and HERE Real-Time Traffic can certainly aid the future of autonomous driving. Our HD Live Map product is made of three components – the HD map, the activity layer and the analytics layer. The second piece is what we’re talking about here – live information.”

“This includes traffic flow, accidents, construction sites. All of this is coming through our traffic feed today, and it’s incredibly important for autonomous vehicles to not only know how the road is laid out, but also receive information on traffic, construction and other things that are happening dynamically throughout the day so that the car can prepare and react appropriately.”

So, what next for Real-Time Traffic? Carrie adds:

“First of all, we’d like more car makers to collaborate around these services and share their data because the more data we have, the richer and more accurate the product can be. We’d love to faster identify the hard-braking events, and continue to make Real-Time Traffic an even better product than it is today.”

Carrie also discusses how innovation is still key for the service, with first-to-market features like split-lane traffic a key focus of the team. This is lane-level traffic information for drivers preparing to enter a junction so – is there a queue, is the traffic free flowing, which lane should I be in to avoid congestion?

She adds, “This information is saving drivers time, so we are seeing how we can build upon this success and continue to drive innovation into our traffic service.”

Proof points

The new features were recently demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show, and Carrie explains that the reception was positive:

“People understood the value this data provides, and the fact that HERE Real-Time Traffic is being enhanced and enriched by this data for no extra cost really resonated.”

She concludes: “This is the first traffic service to leverage rich sensor data from multiple car makers, offering better accuracy and improved traffic flow coverage. For the driver, this could be invaluable.”

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New HERE Maps pricing

New HERE Maps pricing Published: October 24, 2016 Effective immediately HERE has launched new licensing for their cloud service. This new licensing enables you to pick and choose additional features without having to pay for features you may not use. Market-leading research and consulting firm Ovum recently rated the HERE Open Location Platform as the most complete on their “Location Platform Index” in comparison to the other 15 location platform vendors (including Google, Apple and TomTom) in mapping and navigation. If you’ve looked at HERE licensing before and are interested in keeping up to date or you have a renewal with another mapping supplier and wish to ensure you are getting the best deal, then call the Grey Matter mapping team to discuss your requirements on 01364 655 133. VIA

The future is HERE

HD Live Map for autonomous cars

Offline: HERE Maps vs Google Maps