Pioneer, a global car electronics company, will enter into a strategic partnership with HERE, the Open Location Platform firm, to develop next generation location-based services, as well as global mapping solutions for the automotive sector and other industries.

The new partnership will focus on exploring the opportunities to implement Pioneer’s 3D-LiDAR sensor technology in the development of a data ecosystem for autonomous driving.

Both companies are planning to combine their mapping and automotive technologies and assets to develop a fully integrated global SD (standard definition) and HD (high-definition) mapping solutions.

"These new solutions will be designed and developed to support new innovations in in-vehicle infotainment and autonomous driving."

HERE CEO Edzard Overbeek said: “We are excited to be broadening and deepening our collaboration with Pioneer.

“Pioneer shares our vision that location-based technologies will be hugely beneficial to people, enterprises and society as a whole, and we look forward to working together with the Pioneer team to make this a reality.”

These new solutions will be designed and developed to support new innovations in in-vehicle infotainment and autonomous driving, as well as in any sector where location intelligence is applicable used can be applied.

HERE and Pioneer will also focus on exploring opportunities for developing new services that would harness the real-time data of connected Pioneer devices.

For their Global SD map offering, HERE and Pioneer’s mapping subsidiary Increment P (IPC), intend to utilise each other’s map data in existing and future products and services.

HERE will be incorporating navigation-grade map data for Japan from IPC to support the needs of its global customers doing business in the country.

It would be an important aspect of HERE’s strategy for expanding its map coverage to Japan and offer integrated global mapping coverage to its customers.

On the other hand, Pioneer will make use of HERE map data in products as well as in services, which it offers to customers outside of Japan.

HERE and IPC developers intend to develop a globally-consistent HD map solution that will support vehicles across all levels of automation as well as other industries’ needs across all global markets.

The two companies also plan to explore the option to use sensor data generated by Pioneer’s in-vehicle 3D-LiDAR sensor in a HD map solution for a variety of fields, including autonomous driving.