According to their preliminary agreement, the companies aim to offer services to support cars with ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) on the road today right through to the fully autonomous vehicles of the future. The companies’ initial focus is on providing services that, for example, would support smart lane-level guidance for vehicles based on real-time information about traffic conditions and incidents. They will also evaluate how information from vehicle sensors gathered by MELCO can be utilized for high-definition map updates.

Accordingly, the companies intend to draw on their respective technologies, including: HERE’s mapping infrastructure for autonomous cars, HD Live Map; HERE’s Open Location Platform; and MELCO’s precise positioning technology, High-Definition Locator, for data processing, location analytics and the creation of new services.

HERE and MELCO intend to enable services initially for automotive customers in North America and Europe, before making them available more broadly. The companies will also work together to define possible services that target other industries beyond the automotive market.

Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies, said: “Location technology is at the core of the digital transformation happening right now across every industry and this has been the starting point for some very productive discussions between HERE Technologies and Mitsubishi Electric. Each company has unique capabilities to bring to the partnership to shape the digital transformation and, together, we believe we can create tremendous value for our customers. While our initial focus will be on self-driving cars, over time we see our collaboration broadening as we explore powerful new services and business models for the emerging autonomous world.”

Isao Iguchi, Senior Vice President of MELCO, said: “Mitsubishi Electric is actively developing self-sensing driving technologies incorporating various peripheral-sensing technologies, and network-based driving technologies incorporating satellite system and high accuracy 3D mapping. We believe that our partnership with HERE Technologies will strengthen our global rollout of network-based technologies for extra-autonomous driving.”