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An open ecosystem of best-in-class technologies working seamlessly together will be at the heart of the automated transportation systems of the future.

That is the shared vision of Renovo (Renovo.auto), a mobility software technology company, and HERE Technologies (here.com), a global leader in mapping and location services. Today, the two companies announced that they have entered into a partnership to deploy open interfaces for highly and fully automated vehicles. They believe an open-standards approach will fuel greater interoperability and data exchange across the transportation ecosystem, boosting safety, efficiency and comfort for passengers.

In the first phase of their collaboration, Renovo and HERE are working on a new technology interface to maximize the utility of sensor data generated by fleets of automated vehicles in the ‘self-healing’ of highly precise maps. The companies intend to make the interface available for fleets of highly automated vehicles powered by Renovo’s AWare operating system, enabling them to provide data that can be used to update a service such as HD Live Map, the mapping service for automated vehicles from HERE. This service uses different types of sensor data to identify change in the real world and provide a highly-precise, continuously-updating map across the road network. An automated vehicle equipped with HERE HD Live Map knows exactly where it is and has a better understanding of what lies ahead and what it should do in different scenarios.

"As we build the data infrastructure required for autonomous cars, collaboration between key technology providers and across industries is mandatory..."

As we build the data infrastructure required for autonomous cars, collaboration between key technology providers and across industries is mandatory,” said Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies. “With AWare, Renovo has a powerful operating system for automated vehicles. Our partnership and integration into the AWare ecosystem will help expand access to data that’s vital to building automated mobility systems that people can trust.”

“HERE Technologies is a leading creator of mapping and location services with a bold Autonomous World Vision, and we are delighted to enter into this partnership with them,” said Chris Heiser CEO and Co-Founder of Renovo. “We enable our customers to develop and deploy fleets of highly automated vehicles, and these deployments are made possible by an open ecosystem of best-in-class technologies.”

HERE is a privately held company backed by several investors: Audi, BMW, Bosch, Continental, Daimler, Intel and Pioneer. With this partnership, Renovo is joining one of the largest technology ecosystems in the automotive space.

AWare is already powering highly automated vehicle fleets on public and private roads today including that of Voyage.auto. HERE is the newest addition to the rapidly growing AWare ecosystem which includes Samsung, Verizon, Velodyne LiDAR, Parsons, INRIX, Argus Cyber Security, Affectiva, Phantom Auto, Metamoto, Understand.ai, NIRA Dynamics and Bestmile.

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The field service sector could see huge benefits from self-driving cars so the recent announcement from Byton should be of interest to field service organisations everywhere...

BYTON, an innovator of smart, premium electric vehicles, announced a partnership with Aurora, a leading self-driving technology company.

The partnership will help BYTON incorporate Level 4 (L4) autonomous-driving vehicle capabilities into BYTON vehicles and enable BYTON to become among the very first group of carmakers to bring L4 and eventually Level 5 (L5) cars to market.

In the next two years, BYTON and Aurora will jointly conduct pilot deployment of Aurora’s L4 autonomous driving systems on BYTON vehiclesIn the next two years, BYTON and Aurora will jointly conduct pilot deployment of Aurora’s L4 autonomous driving systems on BYTON vehicles. Additionally, BYTON and Aurora will explore the use of Aurora’s self-driving system in BYTON's series production vehicles. According to the Society of Automotive Engineers, L4 autonomous vehicles can drive independently in most environments, with the expectations that humans may need or choose to drive in some conditions.

"BYTON is designed for the age of autonomous driving. We are pleased to partner with Aurora, as Aurora is supremely focused on a mission to deliver the benefits of self-driving vehicles safely, quickly, and globally," said Dr. Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and Co-Founder of BYTON.

Dr. Daniel Kirchert, President and Co-Founder at BYTON, added, "I'm confident that Aurora will be instrumental in helping BYTON achieve its objectives as an innovator of smart, premium electric cars with Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous driving."

Chris Urmson, CEO at Aurora, said “We are excited to partner with BYTON, an innovator in the electric vehicle industry, to further advance our goal of delivering self-driving vehicles quickly, broadly and safely. We look forward to piloting this technology in California.”

Earlier this month at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, BYTON premiered its BYTON Concept and announced plans to design and build smart premium electric cars for the Chinese, U.S. and European markets. Sales are set to begin in China in 2019, and sales in the United States and Europe to start in 2020.

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A new study from Juniper Research forecasts almost 20 million fully autonomous or self-driving vehicles on the road by 2025, with consumer adoption set to take off in 2021.  These driverless cars will, however, represent only 1% of all vehicles on the roads.

Driven by increased safety and convenience for drivers, development has progressed to live trials with North America and West Europe set to become the first to witness driverless cars in use on the road.

The research found that in the interim, consumer usage of ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance System) technologies such as adaptive cruise control and automated braking will become key. It argued that these systems will serve to prepare drivers for the psychological change from the role of driving a car to operating a driverless car.

How to Monetise Driverless Cars?

The new research, Autonomous Vehicles: Adoption, Regulation & Business Models 2015-2025, finds that although the market has progressed to live trials, a discernible monetisation strategy has not become evident. Stakeholders are currently investigating multiple business models with manufacturers expected to engage in product licensing, self-production or open sourcing the systems.

Top 5 Players Driving the Market

Juniper Research ranked the top 5 most promising players in the driverless car sector. They were scored on a number of key factors such as: live trials; miles tested on road; technology development; project scale and scope; future potential and market opportunities. The rankings were:  Google, Volvo, Daimler, Tesla and Apple. Google was ranked as the most promising player, having been in development the longest and having logged the highest amount of autonomous miles on public roads.

Dealing with Dilemmas

The research noted that concerns over the decision making capabilities of these systems have been raised and questions have been asked about the decisions autonomous vehicles would take when presented with the Trolley Problem, where the autonomous car will be forced to choose between two disastrous outcomes.

The Juniper study argued that the siloed nature of technology development requires stakeholders to collaborate and ensure a minimum level of safety for those in the hands of autonomous driving systems.

The report forms part of Juniper’s ongoing analysis of Connected Cars & Telematics.

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