Here Technologies says the Global Weather Corporation (GWC) has joined its Marketplace option to provide RoadWX weather data service, a segment-level forecast of road surface conditions (dry, near dry, wet, snow/ice and slush).
GWC will also provide information such as road condition confidence level, pavement surface temperature, on-road water and snow depth, potential visibility limits, and other weather variables.
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RoadWX will be map-matched to Here road segment topology. The combination of the two companies’ capabilities and underlying technologies represents a breakthrough for addressing vehicle safety and efficiency use cases, ranging from infotainment to safety standards of automated driving and navigation.
For example, the integration of GWC’s road-level weather data with high-definition maps and real-time vehicle sensor data from Here can broaden the availability of automated driving in regions most impacted by adverse road weather conditions.
Whereas atmospheric weather conditions can confuse some vehicle sensors, knowing in advance the road surface information provides an external reference beyond the readings from vehicle sensors. For example, a vehicle may ‘kick out’ of a state of highly automated driving if its sensors, such as windscreen wipers, indicate light rain.
However, knowing the road surface condition on the road segment ahead may indicate the vehicle can still maintain traction in a state of highly automated driving.
“Today there is a clear need for a neutral party that can safely and securely offer standardised access to vehicle sensor data and Here is positioned to do this,” said Here Technologies, Americas SVP and GM, Kirk Mitchell.
“We look forward to working with GWC to take advantage of the Here Marketplace to offer its differentiated products to automotive and other industries as the movement to in-vehicle experiences and automated driving continues to evolve.”
GWC’s forecasts are updated every 15 minutes, providing current conditions and forecasts hourly out to 48 hours and every 15 minutes for the first several hours.
RoadWX is based on machine learning technology which models environmental and physical characteristics of the road surface and sub-surface for all classes of roads.
Road conditions forecast are; dry, near dry, wet, snow/ice and slush at the road segment-level. Additional variables include road condition confidence level, road surface temperature, water/snow depth on-road, air temperature, precipitation type and amount, wind speed and direction.
