Be it at home or abroad, HERE Technologies is empowering many automotive companies digitally. In the last 3 decades and more since its inception, the company has set its digital foot in multiple countries, offering them cutting-edge location data and technology solutions. Abhijit Sengupta, Director and Head of Business, Southeast Asia and SAARC, HERE Technologies, offers more such insights in an exclusive interaction with Sarada Vishnubhatla.
HERE Technologies’ horizontal location technology platform helps improve businesses around the world, using live vehicle and device sensors, LiDAR, AI, Robotics, IoT and the like. The company caters to the automotive sector across passenger, commercial EVs that includes 2- and 3-wheelers, besides individual-owned 2-wheelers.
Abhijit Sengupta, Director and Head of Business, Southeast Asia and SAARC, HERE Technologies, shares: “The location technology platform that we offer is critical to the entire service range. In more than 3 decades that we have been serving our clients, we have witnessed a sea change in the way maps and location technology are used. HERE Technologies has not only been responding to these changes but we also have been at the forefront in helping evolving many such trends.”
Tackling Digital Sea Change
As a long-term player, HERE Technologies has been working in tandem with the industry at every step of its evolution – starting with the point when the digital map came into existence and vehicles started using digital technology to provide navigation that was aided by the advancement in the broadband cellular network technology. Passenger cars were one of the first vehicle segments to use offline navigation that could be embedded in the car make-up. They were further aided by traffic services and visual representation of the city to help the drivers navigate better.
Sengupta further explains: “As the vehicles became more connected, more features and solutions could be delivered on the platform. We could show real time traffic as against historical traffic information. Simultaneously, other segments also opened up to help companies install fleet management systems. They then needed location information to be more efficient which further drove new products and services. Around 2013-14, the ride sharing companies came into the picture, and e-commerce business began to emerge too. Soon, e-governance also picked up pace which strengthened the need for robust location technology and information. Also, for some markets, we offer high-definition live maps. Though, every market is different, we are part of the evolution in the future too.”
Making a Difference
HERE Technologies has taken on competition successfully since the advent of location technology into the automotive ecosystem. The strategy of the company has always been to drive product innovation, understanding the unique nuance of a every market and fulfilling commitments.
Sengupta adds: “We offer our services in about 50 countries around the world. The way we see it is that a map or a location is by definition local, and the way the information is understood across different locations might be different in another part of the world. Our USP is to provide the solution at scale, offer value to our customers by bringing new products and services that may not be available with many of our competitors. Our customers are multinationals amongst others for whom we are a one-stop solution provider to help them localize. For example, India needs a different treatment as in addressing the local points of interest, the freshness of the map and all. It is a complete package they get with HERE Technologies.”
HERE Technologies’ customers can benefit using their location platform by taking advantage of HERE Marketplace and Workspace. The former allows them to monetize their products and services – if they have information on parking, weather or charging station information, for example while the latter allows the customers to refine their solutions.
The company also offers customized solutions to the markets where needed by making the user interface intuitive.
Partnering Automotive Stakeholders
Commercially, there is a great opportunity for the automotive ecosystem to develop further, which makes it powerful and an important aspect of this platform, especially in India. Currently, the EV segment and the e-commerce business segment are the most promising segments that are evolving at a fast pace.
With the EV segment growing more aggressively in Indian automotive ecosystem, there is an abundance of new players entering the segment. HERE Technologies is on board with multiple such companies and start-ups in all the geographies they cater to, including India.
He explains: “The new players may not be traditional OEMs or even automotive companies, but their entry into this segment is an important indicator of how the segment is developing fast. On the other hand, the long-distance commercial e-vehicle segment is going to evolve further as it needs more support infrastructure. Across all these segments, location technology platform plays a critical role in enabling change management of driving behavior especially in the adoption of EVs.”
The change management of driver behavior touches upon the way a driver is conditioned to using fossil fuel in ICE vehicles and taking care of the person’s anxieties in terms of accessing charging stations in time, for example.
Sengupta continues: “Location technology plays a significant role in providing information needed to take right decision at the right time in terms of say knowing the ETA, traffic information, the range or the routing, which is also dependent on the location of the recharging stations. This addresses the initial hesitation where adoption is concerned, and it gives a level of comfort. And EVs will be a strong change agent because they would have to be connected vehicles that will use the location information more.”
The e-commerce business in India has been doing well in the last few years but it received a big boost in the arm due to the COVID pandemic induced ‘new normal’ lifestyle in both the urban dwellers as well as some rural population. In turn, the number of 2-wheelers being adopted by the e-commerce sector has increased in significant volumes during this time. The segment has a high need now for routing algorithms and HERE Technologies is helping the companies.
Sengupta agrees: “We support the e-commerce ecosystem by providing various APIs, services, and applications. In the Indian context, we are learning that the system and the service quality are evolving where a significant number of work force which was living in the big cities has now moved back to their hometowns in tier-2 cities or non-metropolitan cities. It is interesting to note that their buying behavior using e-commerce and food delivery platforms has not changed. It means that they continue to utilize these services but only in a different context in different cities. So, the service providers are expected to provide their services there as well.” And HERE is where the action is.
Today, the large e-commerce players in India are able to deliver goods to even remote addresses, and HERE Technologies supports them addressing the last mile challenges.
Market Evolution
HERE Technologies responds to highly fragmented markets such as in the Southeast Asia region because though the countries are of varied sizes and different maturity levels when it comes to their economies, yet there are similarities in their driving and buying behaviors – even if the scale is different. Some mature markets in Southeast Asia, Western Europe and North America use certain navigation features which may not be adopted by some emerging markets.
Sengupta shares: “There are 2 ways to look at the automotive segment – passenger and the commercial vehicle segments. The former, which is the non-commercial segment, has started to use location information much more than in the previous years, simply because the commercial counterparts have begun using them. It is the commercial segment that has driven some of these innovations.” HERE Technologies is now an integral part of fast-evolving markets with customers who are driven by bringing out innovative solutions. In these are exciting times despite the impact of the COVID pandemic, the Indian automotive industry is being empowered digitally, HERE and now!