On November 14th, HERE TECH DAY came to a successful conclusion in Shenzhen. Hosted by HERE and organized by Gasgoo, the event was themed "Leading the New Era of Software-Defined Vehicles" and focused on HERE's overseas electronic maps and location services. It presented industry partners with global, integrated solutions for navigation, assisted driving, city NOA, logistics, and other sectors.
At the beginning of the conference, Sammie Xi, GC General Manager of HERE, extended a warm welcome to all the guests.
Advancing Businesses with Location Technology
The automotive industry is undergoing profound transformations through connectivity, automation, and electrification. The application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud computing has made software a crucial factor influencing the entire value chain, including partnerships, software development, legislation, and insurance services.
According to Deon Newman, SVP and General Manager of HERE APAC， as a leading provider of positioning software platforms for the automotive and other industries, has provided data and solutions to over 70 OEM brands. More than 44 million connected vehicles share real-time traffic data and hazard warnings, benefiting over 200 million vehicles. Additionally, more than 50 OEMs have adopted HERE's ISA, and over 44 million vehicles used HERE's ADAS and HD maps this year. With the support of HD real-time maps, two major OEMs have launched unique hands-off, eyes-off L3 autonomous driving features. In other industries, HERE provides search and geocoding services to the top three mobile operators and ride-hailing services, and location intelligence services to nine out of the ten most strategically significant fleet telematics software providers globally.
Latest Trends & Industry Insights
In 2023, global automobile sales reached 87 million units, with an expected increase to 88 million in 2024 and a projection to reach 97 million by 2030. Among them, the South American, South Asian, and Indian markets are relatively growing the fastest, while China demonstrates significant absolute growth trends.
Bart Sweerman, SVP of Services & Support, HERE, mentioned that technologically, SDVs adopt regional architectures, advanced sensor stacks, fully automated operating systems, and connectivity/OTA technologies, significantly enhancing vehicle performance. In terms of electrification, progress in the United States is slow, Europe has slowed down, but the Asia-Pacific region is accelerating. The cockpit experience is becoming richer and more intuitive, encompassing advanced navigation, AR, media, and karaoke functions. In autonomous driving, full self-driving still requires time, while ADAS continues to progress. Maps and positioning technologies provide critical support for all trends, including OTA map updates, EV charging point planning, unified and semantically consistent maps, empowering the cockpit and ADAS systems. Additionally, although the trend of shared mobility has not yet been fully realized, it holds great potential.
Location Intelligence for the Digital Cockpit
With the advent of the autonomous driving era, maps have evolved beyond traditional navigation. They guide users to charging stations, plan optimal routes, provide real-time hazard information, and enhance safety systems to support autonomous driving technologies.
Bill Schumacher, Senior Director of HERE Global Automotive, stated that HERE offers comprehensive solutions for the digital cockpit. Utilizing advanced maps enables large language model capabilities for navigation, electrification, and virtual assistants. Dynamic services showcase real-time map changes, aiding drivers in making informed decisions. As a software enabler, HERE provides software development toolkits, giving users complete flexibility in selecting core content and dynamic services. Additionally, HERE offers cost-effective navigation software applications, reducing costs and accelerating time-to-market.
Furthermore, HERE is soon to introduce richer rendering experiences, including 3D digital terrain and shadows, more detailed rendering of buildings and infrastructure (covering underground passages, advanced 3D building attributes such as textures, roofs, shapes, and columns, bridges, tunnels, etc.), and light source configurations based on sun position. Additionally, HERE's applications will support more daytime scenarios, such as dusk and dawn.
Global ADAS and AD Solutions
HD maps play a universal and crucial role in autonomous driving systems, whether applied to personal vehicles, autonomous long-haul trucks, robot taxis, or autonomous delivery vehicles.
Chen Yan, Automotive Solution Architect of HERE Greater China, expressed that HD maps offer six key advantages: precise vehicle positioning to ensure accurate autonomous driving decisions; supplementing perception systems to enhance near and far perception capabilities of autonomous vehicles; providing driving policy information to assist systems in route planning and compliance with regulations; revealing implicit rules to ensure systems understand unexplicitly announced traffic rules; aiding interactive predictions by incorporating information such as crosswalks and bike lanes to help systems predict the behavior of other road users; and managing ODD (Operational Design Domain) to ensure autonomous driving systems operate under strict conditions and hand control back to drivers when necessary.
Diverse Navigation Experience
In the digital era, diverse navigation experiences have become key factors in enhancing user satisfaction and market competitiveness. With technological advancements, navigation services are no longer limited to traditional map and route planning functions but have gradually integrated more personalized and intelligent elements. For example, by integrating real-time traffic information, weather conditions, user preferences, and other data, navigation services can provide users with more precise and efficient travel recommendations.
Manfred Fu, GC General Manager of TELENAV China, expressed that the best navigation is not just a simple guidance tool but also carries deeper meaning. The layout design of the navigation interface needs to be aesthetic and practical, providing precise direction in complex traffic and interacting more friendly with drivers under strict traffic rules, optimizing functions according to driving habits. Chinese navigation interfaces display clearly, combining data for intelligence, and pay more attention to information such as humidity, real-time traffic conditions, and railways, making navigation more user-friendly. International OEM navigation products are also continuously improving and innovating. In summary, the best navigation needs to consider factors such as driver safety, driving habits, and road conditions, continuously optimizing and innovating to provide intelligent and user-friendly services.
Location Technology in Action
HERE provides services such as public transportation, route planning, geospatial databases, real-time traffic, geocoding and search, and map rendering through two architectures: HERE web APIs and HERE native APIs. At the Web API layer, JavaScript libraries and RESTful service interfaces are provided to support functions such as map rendering, geocoding, and search. At the Native API layer, corresponding API interfaces for Android, iOS, and Flutter platforms are provided, such as real-time traffic information inquiry. Additionally, it supports cross-screen and cross-device development.
Leading Era of SDV – Innovations and 2025 Forecast
Subsequently, the conference transitioned into the roundtable discussion session. Sammie Xi hosted the roundtable discussion, joined by Bart Sweerman, Bill Schumacher, and Manfred Fu, where they discussed the future trends and innovations of software-defined vehicles.
With this, all the agendas of HERE TECH DAY have come to a successful conclusion. Maps serve as a crucial bridge connecting vehicles, roads, users, and data, playing a vital role in precise vehicle positioning, efficient route planning, comprehensive environmental perception, and intelligent decision support. As technology continues to advance, the importance of automotive maps is increasingly prominent. In the future, HERE Technologies will uphold the spirit of innovation to deepen technological research and development, collaborate with industry partners to promote the upgrading and application of automotive map technology, and create a bright future for intelligent travel.
