Verizon and HERE partner to create safety and navigational systems

Credit: HERE Technologies

Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband and low-latency Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) infrastructure, combined with HERE Technologies’ mapping and AI perception, are coming together to ‘reimagine a future of enhanced road safety and precise localisation for navigation’.

HERE Technologies and Verizon announced the partnership with the aim to explore applications of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network and multi-access edge compute (MEC) platform, 5G Edge, coupled with HERE location, data technology and autonomous vehicle expertise. The partnership is said to focus on co-innovation for a wide range of enterprise, industrial and consumer-facing use cases. 

HERE will be providing Verizon with access to a range of location data, SDKs, and APIs from the HERE Platform. Verizon and HERE are also planning to develop new connected services to benefit a range of industries, from automotive to smart cities, to transport and logistics, beginning with two proofs of concept:

• Collision Avoidance is intended to increase pedestrian and driver safety by combining Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband capabilities with HERE’s HD Live Map and Live Sense computer vision technology to create a vehicle-to-network (V2N) communication system. HERE’s Live Sense SDK identifies vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles, etc. and barriers from a vehicle-mounted mobile phone. This data will then be sent to Verizon’s 5G Edge, where the Collision Avoidance AI predicts likely travel paths and warns vehicles of impending potential collisions
• Visual Positioning Service (VPS) is designed to enable near-instantaneous identification of a specific location with sub-meter accuracy using image capture. Proprietary 3D positioning algorithms from HERE analyse images or videos for accurate positioning, which occurs in near real-time via Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network and 5G Edge. VPS is a complementary solution to signal-based location technologies, such as GPS, because it reportedly does not rely on a remote server and is less hindered by tall buildings or signal deserts. The technology is also adaptable for indoor use.

“5G is the future, and the scale of the Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband network is designed to enable higher-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity necessary for more precise positioning,” said Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE. “Our partnership with Verizon not only allows us to tap into the innovation potential of 5G but also highlights what is possible when this technology utilises location intelligence: connected services that are designed to make our world safer and more efficient.”

“This collaboration with HERE further proves Verizon’s commitment to innovating around and improving location services and pedestrian and intersection safety,” said Laura Cochran, Head of Product, Verizon Location Technology. “By harnessing the power of Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and 5G Edge, along with HERE’s proprietary 3D positioning algorithms, we are driving together toward a safer and more precise future.”