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HERE Pushes for Common Self-Driving Car Language, Has One to Offer

It's been widely accepted that before autonomous cars become the norm, they'll have to find a way to communicate with each other first. And that doesn't mean just your occasional "hello, how are you?" type of dialogues, but a constant exchange of potentially huge chunks of data.
Mercedes-Benz IAA Concept 1 photo
Photo: Mercedes-Benz
The level of computing power found in some of the cars today could put to shame a two-year-old desktop computer, and the silicon parts are only going to grow in strength, but their power will reach an upper limit at some point.

By contrast, the super-computers managing a cloud network are infinitely more powerful, not to mention that it would make a lot more sense for the data to be processed only once, and then sent to all vehicles that might find it relevant, instead of every car doing the same operation and coming to the same conclusion. It would be faster, less redundant.

That's what mapping company HERE has been stating for quite some time while also working on a universal language that could make this happen. It's called SENSORIS and HERE has just sent it over to a vehicle safety standards body called ERTICO - ITS Europe where it should be transformed into a "standardized interface specification" for all automakers, Slash Gear reports.

"If a car around the next corner hits the brakes because there’s an obstruction, that information could be used to signal to the drivers behind to slow down ahead of time, resulting in smoother, more efficient journeys and a lower risk of accidents
," said Dietmar Rabel, head of HERE's autonomous driving product management. "But that can only work if all cars can speak and understand the same language."

At the moment, the system is still heavily dependent on the availability of high-speed networks, and the current 4G standard isn't enough for the predicted data volume. 5G should solve that as it not only brings greater bandwidth, but it will also cut latency, a very important aspect when dealing with such time-sensitive data.

As you can imagine, HERE isn't alone in its attempt to offer such a service, but it already has the backing of some of the most important names in the industry: AISIN AW, Robert Bosch, Continental, Daimler, Elektrobit, Harman, NavInfo, Pioneer or TomTom. You might also remember that HERE is owned by the German Holy Trinity of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler, so if you consider that Audi is part of the VW Group, it's basically got the backing of the entire German carmaking industry. Which, you know, might just give it an edge.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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