Page 45 - EE Times Europe Magazine - June 2025

EE|Times EUROPE 45

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING | SAFETY AND SECURITY
HERE, BMW Extend Precision Mapping for

Autonomous Driving

By Pat Brans
With deep AI integration and lane-level accuracy, HERE’s mapping technology is
becoming foundational for Level 2+ and Level 3 autonomy in BMW vehicles.

Cockpit view of unified mapping (Source: BMW)

s automakers race toward equipped with Level 3 autonomy, the data lets for a smoother and safer ride. “Your braking is
increasingly autonomous driving the vehicle safely handle scenarios in which going to be very gradual, and you come out of
capabilities, the quality of their sensors fall short—for example, approaching a curves very smoothly,” Balcaen told EE Times
A digital maps has become critical. sharp curve on an off-ramp that isn’t yet vis- Europe.
In this context, Amsterdam-based HERE ible. This advance in spatial awareness allows
Technologies and BMW Group have expanded FROM DATA FUSION TO
a long-standing collaboration to bring PREDICTIVE INTELLIGENCE
AI-enhanced high-definition (HD) maps to To achieve that level of accuracy and reli-
BMW’s Level 2+ and Level 3 vehicles. ability, HERE uses a unified mapping system
The partnership underscores a broader that consolidates data from diverse sources,
shift in the automotive world: Digital maps including government infrastructure feeds,
are evolving from navigation aids to essen- satellite and aerial imagery, crowdsourced
tial infrastructure for autonomous driving. A photos, and in-vehicle sensor data. This
sensor cannot see that it’s about to go into a multisource fusion is processed using arti-
very sharp curve, for example, but with the ficial intelligence and machine learning to
right mapping technology, a car can know clean the “raw oil” and distill it into usable,
what’s coming, said Leen Balcaen, senior vice reliable information.
president of product management at HERE. “We have always collected [data from]
The company’s maps now achieve accuracy multiple sources because no one source is
to within 10 cm, offering real-time lane- perfect,” Balcaen said. “The more we can
level data that enables critical decisions on automate, the more we can increase the accu-
actions such as lane-keeping, overtaking, racy of our maps and the more we can keep
and preemptive braking. In BMW vehicles HERE Technologies’ Leen Balcaen people safe while driving a car.”

www.eetimes.eu | JUNE 2025