BMW will turn on HERE HD Live Map in future models

If you’ve been in a BMW that featured in-car navigation in the last 3 years, then you were likely using HERE map data. Coming in the new decade, the BMW Group will use the HERE HD Live Map, bringing new accuracy and new features to your driving experience.

We’re proud to announce that the agreement has been inked, and HERE HD Live Map will be powering the next wave of highly automated driving features from the BMW Group. 

Previously, HERE map data has been in several models of BMW cars. Those maps are the perfect solution for navigation while a human is at the wheel, but to get the accuracy needed for Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous driving, you need a precision navigation system that can locate your car accurately within a matter of centimeters.

Utilizing that precise location data, the BMW Group can begin turning on advanced autonomous features where the vehicle AI can take the wheel and alert the driver whenever it needs help.

With this new agreement, the HERE HD Live Map will be built into BMW models starting in the next decade.  The features enabled will raise the standards for driver safety and driver comfort alike.  

The HERE HD Live Map has been in production for several years and has mapped over half a million kilometers of roadways to sub-meter accuracy.  That number will eclipse one million across North America and Europe in 2018.  The elements of the HERE HD Live Map include lane configurations, lane markings, centerlines, road shoulders, speed limits, and a full layer of roadside objects that give the vehicle its precise awareness of the road.

While HERE and the BMW Group have been research partners for several years, the agreement marks the first commercial contract we have signed with an automaker to build HERE HD Live Map into production model cars.

The BMW Group has been putting sensor-enabled cars on the road since 2015, and their total number of connected cars has reached over 10 million vehicles.  That history of data, as well as the real-time detection of data from the roadway is a principal element of enabling automated driving.

HERE is at the forefront of leveraging artificial intelligence both in the car, and in the cloud.  The HERE HD Live Map does more than direct one car. It collates information from a rapidly growing number of cars on the road. The combination of AI working at near-real time enables cars, and their drivers, to see beyond the reach of the onboard sensors.

We’re very excited about this inaugural commercial agreement for HERE HD Live Map. The trust of the BMW Group in our map reinforces our view that with our innovative product, long-term development strategy, and sustained investment program we are well-placed to meet the needs of automakers as they introduce more automation into their vehicles.