As software-defined vehicles evolve, HERE Technologies (HERE) combines its digital mapping and location data expertise, cloud delivery, and modular integration to support automakers’ ongoing innovation from early-stage simulations to the start of production (SOP) and over the vehicle lifecycle. The company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered services support next-generation digital cockpit, navigation, and automated driving functions, while its partnerships with nearly every global automaker help scale connected, automated, and EV-ready capabilities across markets.
In recognition of this dual impact, HERE has been awarded for Innovation and Business Expansion in the 2025 Just Auto Excellence Awards.
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HERE won the Innovation award in the AI Mobility category for seamlessly integrating advanced, location-aware AI into vehicle systems and development workflows, enabling more intuitive in-car experiences, faster feature validation, and pre-SOP development cycles. The company won the Business Expansion award for building a broad, compliant partner ecosystem globally that supports international rollouts of navigation, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and software-defined vehicle capabilities across markets.
AI Mobility Innovation: Context-Aware In-Car Experiences and Simulation Acceleration
HERE has been recognized for bringing AI into day-to-day driving and development workflows in a way that is practical, scalable, and rooted in automotive requirements. The HERE AI Assistant illustrates this approach. Rather than a generic voice bot, it uses multiple large language models linked to HERE’s comprehensive APIs to interpret complex, location-related requests that represent the vast majority of the requests prompted to in-car assistants today. This allows a driver to speak in natural language and safely ask for, say, a route home that avoids tolls, arrives by a specific time, and includes timed stops without having to go through complex menus—then receive guidance that accounts for real-time traffic and road conditions. The same capability extends to richer scenarios, such as finding a café near a beach or planning a stop 50 miles before arrival as well as to truck-specific routing, which demonstrates spatial understanding rather than simple keyword matching.
Crucially, the HERE AI Assistant is built to integrate into production systems. It can be deployed via HERE Navigation or the HERE SDK, giving OEMs options for embedded IVI and companion apps. Over-the-air updates are central to the model. Automakers can add features or refine experiences post-sale, keeping cockpit functions current without head-unit overhauls. This is particularly relevant for EVs, where routing accuracy and charge planning drive user confidence. HERE’s system factors in live and historical traffic, topography and geometry, vehicle battery consumption models, and estimated charge point availability to produce realistic range estimates and charging strategies.
The platform also looks ahead to safety-related use cases. According to HERE, upcoming versions of the HERE AI Assistant will draw on topology and topography layers to support features such as Intelligent Speed Assistance and natural-language alerts about speed limits or hazardous conditions.
Innovation was not limited to the cockpit. With SceneXtract, co-developed with AWS, HERE tackled a persistent bottleneck in ADAS and automated driving development: reconstructing real-world locations for simulation. The tool uses natural language and generative AI search to find relevant scenes within HERE HD Live Map data – a high-precision map used commercially in automated driving systems – that enables seamless export into the ASAM OpenDrive format. This reduces the manual effort and time required to locate, stitch, and convert map tiles for validation and verification in testing. For developers working on SAE Level 2 and 3 functions, such as automated lane changes and highway transitions, the ability to quickly generate simulation-ready environments can shorten iteration cycles and help teams focus on perception, planning, and system-level performance. HERE and AWS detail that SceneXtract leverages services such as Amazon Bedrock and OpenSearch, underscoring that the solution is designed for scale and precision rather than ad hoc scene building.
Underpinning these capabilities is a unified, cloud-based architecture that HERE has refined through commercial use in mapmaking and location services. The stack is designed for global deployment, supports regulatory needs such as ISA data provisioning, and gives OEMs latitude to tailor the user experience. Together, the conversational guidance, lifecycle updates, EV-specific intelligence, and accelerated ADAS/AD validation demonstrates an AI strategy that is both user-centric and production-ready.
Global Partnerships: Scaling Navigation, ADAS, and SDV Capabilities Worldwide
The Business Expansion award reflects the breadth and depth of HERE’s partner network and its role in enabling international programs. According to the company, its customers represented 80% of Chinese OEM export volumes in 2024, a signal of trust in its location technology as brands scale outside their home market. The collaborations span hardware-software stacks, cockpit platforms, and automated driving functions, and they are structured to address differing regulatory and operational conditions country by country.
Two partnerships illustrate the model. With Lotus Robotics, HERE is supplying its HERE HD Live Map data for a Highway Navigation Pilot that targets European homologation in 2025 and is designed to support L2+ features such as automated lane changes, highway transitions, and passing maneuvers. The solution is aimed at both Lotus vehicles and other OEMs through a joint offering, enabling faster access to high-precision map data for functions that rely on accurate localization and path planning. In parallel, HERE’s agreement with ECARX combines the HERE SDK and compliant location data for more than 200 countries and territories with ECARX’s full-stack capabilities. The goal, as stated by the companies, is to shorten development cycles for international platforms and provide a common, production-ready navigation foundation that can be localized to meet data regulations across major markets.
Recent program selections further demonstrate cross-segment adaptability and high configurability. Sony Honda Mobility plans to use the HERE Navigation SDK to power AFEELA’s digital cockpit, including features such as EV range management and augmented reality visualization supported by HERE’s unified mapping architecture. Togg is deploying an experience based on HERE Navigation that integrates EV-optimized routing, over-the-air updates, and Intelligent Speed Assistance supported by HERE’s Horizon Data Online speed-limit streaming. Dacia selected HERE Navigation for the All-New Duster and New Spring, citing always up-to-date maps and traffic delivered via OTA. Lotus expanded its work with HERE to equip the Emeya with comprehensive EV services, including charge point search, machine learning-based charge point predictions, multi-stop routing, and range visualization, alongside real-time traffic and online/offline guidance.
A SaaS delivery model and SDKs that let manufacturers roll out connected navigation align with local regulations and add features over time. For automated driving features, HERE’s Automated Driving Zones allow OEMs to define operational design domains—where and under what conditions features can be activated—supporting controlled, compliant deployments. And with mapping coverage spanning more than 200 countries and territories, HERE brings local market knowledge that helps partners address regulatory approvals, data residency requirements, and operational constraints without rebuilding core systems from scratch.
“We are truly honored to receive recognition for both Innovation and Business Expansion at the 2025 Just Auto Excellence Awards. This accomplishment reinforces HERE’s leadership in AI-driven mobility and our dedication to building global partnerships that advance software-defined and electric vehicles. These awards validate our ongoing commitment to deliver safe, intelligent, and connected driving experiences for automakers and drivers worldwide.”
– Remco Timmer, SVP and Head of Automotive Solutions at HERE Technologies
Company Profile
HERE is the global leader in mapping and location technology. For 40 years, the company has been powering innovation for the world’s most recognizable companies: from launching its first digital map in 1985, to shaping the future of software-defined vehicles today. With the industry’s freshest and richest unified map and a portfolio of products, services, and solutions that serve the needs of multiple industries, HERE reveals opportunities that drive progress and unlock new possibilities for every moving vehicle. Discover more at here.com.
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Dr. Sebastian Kurme
Corporate Communications
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Website: https://www.here.com/
