HERE Technologies strengthens commitment to improving European road safety

• HERE joins European ‘Data for Road Safety’ initiative
• OLP Marketplace to support OEMs in push to share their safety-related data
• BMW Group to be the first to release such data under Creative Commons license, starting July 1

Safety first. That is the message from HERE Technologies, which today announced that it is strengthening its commitment to helping improve the safety of drivers across Europe.

HERE has long championed the idea that sharing data is at the heart of safer driving. The company envisions tens of millions of vehicles sharing anonymized data with, for example, EU National Access Points, government transportation agencies, and service providers, enabling drivers and road operators to benefit from more precise and reliable warnings about potential hazards on the road.

Today, HERE outlined important new steps it is taking to move closer to realizing this vision.

HERE joins European ‘Data for Road Safety’ initiative

HERE today announced that it is collaborating with the EU Data Task Force (DTF) on a proof of concept called ‘Data for Road Safety’ aimed at bringing Safety-Related Traffic Information (SRTI) to road users across EU member states, in accordance with existing EU regulations.  

Working together to make driving safer for all road users is at the heart of the DTF’s work. Founded in 2017, the DTF supports the implementation of existing EU laws on access to safety services. By boosting access to safety data and enabling collaboration between vehicle manufacturers and countries, the DTF aims to enhance traffic safety for all road users. 

The Data for Road Safety initiative involves pooling safety-related data from multiple sources, including road infrastructure and different brands of vehicles, and making it accessible to all project partners. The year-long trial will see participating organizations explore the different aspects involved in running such a data ecosystem.

Data for Road Safety was outlined today at a high-level roundtable of the DTF in Eindhoven ahead of this week’s ITS European Congress. HERE, one of the 11 founding partners, will begin participating in the initiative in the role of data aggregator, an area in which it has deep experience. Furthermore, HERE will explore ways of deploying its proven expertise in creating high-quality safety services for drivers. The HERE Open Location Platform (OLP) already powers location-based services created with live data from different carmakers. 

Representing HERE at today’s Eindhoven roundtable, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Meier said: “HERE Technologies has been at the forefront of the effort to turn vehicle sensor data into live services that enhance driver safety. We have shown that the technology is both commercially ready and globally available. Now the focus is on more industry players coming together in the spirit of collaboration to create truly scaled data services where, eventually, drivers of any brand of car can benefit from the experiences of others on the road. We therefore welcome the ‘Data for Road Safety’ initiative as a catalyst for further collaboration and look forward to contributing to its success.” 

HERE data marketplace to support OEMs and transport agencies in safety push

The HERE OLP is a collaborative location platform and home to global-scale location data, tools and services. It also integrates the world’s first global location data exchange, HERE OLP Marketplace, enabling data providers to unlock value from their data by making it available to others.

To help promote an open data ecosystem to improve road safety, HERE today announced that it is committing to make European safety-related data distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC) accessible to Marketplace data consumers at no cost to them. Such data could come from vehicle fleets and road infrastructure.

BMW Group has announced that it will be the first carmaker to make a set of live safety-related data from its European fleet available through the Marketplace. The data, planned to be available from July 1, will include anonymized information collected by BMW and MINI cars, such as that related to slippery roads, poor visibility or broken-down cars.

Edzard Overbeek, CEO, HERE Technologies, said: “Through the Open Location Platform, HERE Technologies is creating a vibrant ecosystem where data can be exchanged to create applications and solutions that benefit people and society at large. Traffic safety is a fundamental societal need and requires industry-wide collaboration that we are pleased to facilitate. We commend BMW Group in taking the initiative, and invite others to join this effort.”

HERE and safer driving

• HERE is fully committed to advancing road safety worldwide. The company supports the safer movement of vehicles with a range of location data and mapping technologies. These include traffic and incident data services used by carmakers and road operators as well as high-precision mapping for autonomous cars.
• HERE initiated and developed SENSORIS, the car-to-cloud data standard. Now an open-source initiative, SENSORIS has since become widely deployed across the industry, ensuring that data from one manufacturer can easily be combined with data from another.
• In 2017, HERE launched the HERE OLP as a place where organizations can more easily pool and share location-centric data. The HERE OLP powers the HERE Safety Services suite, a set of services derived from live vehicle data to created a live depiction of the road environment.

About HERE Technologies 
HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location, we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes – from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding driver to their destinations safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based platform services, visit: http://360.here.com and www.here.com