Editor's note: When this deal was first announced, Vantor was known as Maxar. This blog has been updated to reflect our current brand. Image courtesy of HERE.

HERE has been a pioneer in mapping and location technology for 40 years. More than 200 million vehicles have HERE map data and solutions on board, from passenger cars to commercial trucks, delivery and rideshare vehicles to two-wheelers. HERE employs cutting-edge, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cartography techniques to extract, ingest and conflate real-world features from diverse data sources to create the freshest and richest map used by brands globally.

Digital mapmaking is the science of identifying, validating and updating a world in constant change. HERE leverages thousands of data sources to capture an extraordinary number of changes and reflect them in near real-time on a global map. As the transportation and mobility landscape evolves, the need to keep a global map updated and accurate in real-time grows.

Vantor's highly accurate, high-resolution imagery basemaps play an important role in HERE’s automated map-making workflows. By combining our imagery with HERE’s advanced AI and machine learning (ML) techniques, HERE can efficiently extract and update map features at scale.

“Vantor's satellite imagery helps us push the boundaries of automated map making at global scale,” said Jeff Raimo, Vice President of Platform Enablement at HERE Technologies. “By combining numerous data sources, including vehicle sensor data and Vantor's global satellite imagery, we’re able to provide our customers in the automotive, transportation and logistics, mobility, manufacturing and retail industries with a highly precise and actionable ground-truth view of the world.”

Generating maps for automated driving Detecting and updating features like lane markings or barriers is essential to vehicle safety and compliance. Vantor basemaps, alongside various sources like vehicle sensor data, help HERE verify real-time changes, such as construction or infrastructure updates, and adds an extra layer of confidence by being able to validate these changes automatically across the various sources. The high-definition map delivered that HERE delivers to automakers ensures that the automated driving systems have the most accurate data for decision-making. This process ensures that ground-truth data is reflected in the maps, improving accuracy and freshness.

HERE has developed innovative feature extraction techniques to automatically pull foundational map vectors at scale from Vantor's Vivid Mosaic basemap, which provides a stunning, highly accurate view of Earth. The next step is validating those vectors against Vantor's latest satellite imagery, and updating any vectors as needed. These vectors are also enhanced by user signals, which provide tips to where updates are needed and to validate the current map.

HERE uses AI cartography techniques to extract building footprints (left) and roads (center) from Maxar's Vivid Mosaic basemaps while extracting and validating stop lines and crosswalks (right) from current Vantor imagery. Images courtesy of HERE.

Vantor's satellite imagery suits HERE’s needs because of its freshness, resolution, and accuracy. HERE has been using Vantor satellite imagery as a foundational data source for more than 15 years, and recently renewed its access for several more years to come.

Precision mapping in every direction Vantor's imagery basemaps and satellite imagery offer the highest resolution and accuracy on the commercial market, a crucial ingredient for cutting-edge mapmaking.