navteq

If your car knew the speed limit, it could help you avoid getting speeding tickets. If it knew of a hill up ahead, it could gear down ahead of time. New technology from Navteq and M/A-COM Technology enables just this kind of behavior.

The companies partnered to come up with the Map and Positioning Engine module (MPE), a device designed to communicate location information to a car's drive systems. This module makes it easy for automakers to include location-aware behavior in their cars.

The MPE uses Navteq's mapping data, which includes elevation changes, along with protocols to … Read more

On a sunny Tuesday morning I sat in the back of a Navteq Ford Escape meandering around the new UCSF Mission Bay campus, which had recently arisen on the bay side of San Francisco. Navteq employee Mark drove while Alejandro studied a big monitor on a post above the console. The monitor showed the existing digital street map of the area, which, because of the new construction, bore little resemblance to the roads we traveled.

Alejandro noted that when he tells people about his job it seems pointless, because the country has already been mapped, hasn't it? I was getting a first-hand look what a Navteq field team does every day, digging deep into the changes that can come about from a big development project, like the UCSF campus, or smaller road projects, such as when a municipality decides to block off a street. … Read more

Microsoft has started taking photos in London for Streetside, its Bing Maps photo feature that will go up against Google Street View in the United Kingdom.

The Streetside feature will display street-level images collected using a 360-degree camera, the company said today. Mapping specialist Navteq--which is wholly owned by Nokia--has partnered with Microsoft and is providing the cars to take the 360-degree photos. As well as collecting images, Navteq will gather point-of-interest data such as where landmarks or pubs are located and other road and location information.

"Users should begin seeing [U.K.] images on Bing Maps from … Read more

If you're trying to save fuel, keep in mind that the shortest route offered by a vehicle's navigation system isn't always the most fuel-efficient route. Factor in traffic jams during peak commute hours, and you could burn a lot more fuel in addition to time. But Hyundai says its navigation system's new "green routing" feature will offer drivers definitive fuel-saving directions based on Navteq's digital map and traffic data.

Announced at the 2011 International Motor Show in Geneva, the new navigation option uses details in Navteq's digital maps, such as hills, road … Read more

We drive the Honda CR-Z, and await the new VW Golf R; ratting out speed traps gets kinda legit; the VW that sounds like a guitar; and Google plays smashmouth with the auto nav industry.

? Navteq buys Trapster

? VW gets Fender audio system

? VW Golf R returning to the U.S.

? CR-Z gets a K engine transplant

? Google video suggests the end of in-car GPS

? CNET's LOLCars gallery

Police speed-trap and road hazard reporting service Trapster was purchased by map and traffic data provider Navteq earlier this week.

Trapster is a cross-platform mobile app for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices, as well as a Web service providing data to other smartphones and standalone GPS devices. While driving, users submit the GPS locations of spotted police speed traps, road checks, red-light cameras, and other roadway hazards using the app's interface and receive live updates on the 3.5 million traps reported by the service's 9.5 million users, potentially avoiding unnecessary speeding tickets. Garmin and TomTom users … Read more

Digital map maker Navteq is launching a service designed to add the human element to GPS navigation, the company announced Thursday at IFA in Berlin.

Dubbed Natural Guidance, the service ditches traditional GPS navigation instructions and provides users with directions that they would otherwise receive from friends or family. Rather than say, "turn right in 150 feet," as current GPS devices do now, Navteq's system gives directions based on landmarks. The instructions will include "turn right after the yellow shop," or "turn right at the traffic signal," the company said in a statement. … Read more

For about a year, a group of heavyweight automotive and technology companies has been working on a way to hasten development of in-vehicle entertainment systems. Their solution: share basic software development using the open-source Linux operating system.

Among the nearly 50 members of the group, called the Genivi Alliance, are automakers General Motors, BMW AG, Nissan Motor, and, as of February 17, Renault SA. Suppliers include Visteon, Delphi Automotive, and Continental AG.

The Genivi (pronounced jah-NEE-vee) Alliance is focusing on developing "middleware"--the layer of software that allows various kinds of information and entertainment applications to work together … Read more

Navteq has begun collecting data to construct detailed 3D models and maps of the United States, the digital-mapping specialist said Wednesday.

The Nokia subsidiary has begun outfitting its data collection vehicles with a system called Navteq True. One big part is a lidar (light detection and ranging) system that uses lasers to construct 3D maps of the world out of a sea of data points. The company boasts that its True system uses 64 rotating lidar lasers, captures 1.5 million 3D data points per second from features as far as 150 meters away and works even when the data … Read more