HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Amap Software Co., Ltd., a Chinese web mapping, navigation and location-based services provider since 2001, announced at the company's 2016 Computing Conference in Hangzhou on October 15 that it has made its HD map and data services free of charge for automakers during their development and testing of self-driving cars.
Amap's free HD map service offers an alternative solution for both automakers and map service providers to the traditional buyer-seller relationship of offline map data, by providing a real-time kinematic (RTK) data service platform that guarantees service continuity and clear pricing, while reducing the cost of app development and improving update speed.
"The new era of map data will see it move away from a specialist, heterogeneous product and into an ecological resource built and shared for the development of industries with an infrastructure similar to that of utilities," said Wei Dong, president of the automobile business unit of Amap and vice president of Alibaba's UC Mobile Business Group.
Wei stressed that as Amap provides free HD map and data services to partner automakers, the traditional map data seller will become obsolete, replaced by a dynamic big data service provider, which will help build the smart travel model of the future.
As one of the first companies in China to collect HD map data and carry out technological research and development, Amap has always been a leader in the specialized equipment, accuracy and mileage of collecting HD map data, while accurately reflecting changes in map data to make a difference.
Rong, general manager of the automobile business unit of Amap's VIP business center, explained that the company has realized a multi-stage data acquisition system consisting of specialized professional, public and data collection vehicles. And through smart cloud dispatch, Amap is able to monitor, collect and feed back real-time road traffic updates in the most efficient way with the vehicles best suited for the situations.
"With this system, Amap can efficiently balance quality, speed, cost and coverage and guarantee that the data is both highly accurate and comprehensive, as it becomes a dynamic map that's live in real-time," said Rong. "Based on our advantages, Amap will further strengthen its position as a market leader in HD map tech with the support of our big data and cloud computing capacity."
Amap also announced in December it will launch version 2.0 of its Amap Auto, the first internet in-vehicle navigation system in China.
Version 2.0 will be equipped with Amap's AI engine, a new generation service engine based on big data capability and the machine's learning ability that will provide the optimized travel services customized to individual user's needs and different driving conditions. It will also offer an augmented user experience compared with the previous version with support from the AI engine, multi-formats, multi-lingual cloud control and more.
"Amap's mobile app is now the No.1 ranking smartphone map app in the industry with the highest number of daily active users," says Yongfu Yu, president of Amap and Alibaba's Mobile Business Group." As the focus shifts from 'smartphone + PC' to 'smartphone + automobile, Amap will lend its full support to the development of automotive industry."
"Regarding amap auto version 2.0, Amap has already reached cooperative agreements with a number of automakers in China with more ongoing discussions," adds Wei Dong.
"Moving forward, we will continue to share our big data and cloud computing technology and work together with the industry as a whole to welcome an all-new ecological approach to 'automobile + internet'."
