Microsoft is working with TomTom and Here to develop a smart geo-information platform.

In the modern world, cartographic services literally help a person to live and work. Over time, these services are becoming more perfect. Now Microsoft has announced the start of joint work with TomTom, HERE and Esri on a smart geo-information platform. It will be based on Microsoft technologies and services, which will be significantly complemented and expanded by partner technology products.

The base will be Microsoft Azure, based on this cloud service and will develop secondary products. And third-party developers will be able to participate in the project, who will be given the opportunity to create corporate applications, as well as mobile, web applications, plus IoT services. According to the authors of the project, the new platform and its secondary elements, created by Microsoft and partners, will support the High Definition Map and RoadDNA technologies, which will allow faster implementation of autonomous vehicle control systems.

TomTom representatives have already announced that with the help of Microsoft, all partners who take part in the project will be able to develop geo-information services of a new type that will make life easier for people. Moreover, the services created, provided they are implemented in various localities, will be able to significantly approximate the time of appearance of “smart” cities, where both public and private transport will work in autonomous or semi-automatic modes with updating databases in real time.
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It is clear that since Microsoft is the main partner of the project, its implementation will involve the main products of the corporation, including Bing, Cortana, Windows, Office. In particular, HERE is already supplying data for the Bing Maps API. The new agreement will give the corporation the opportunity to expand the use of HERE geo-information in additional products and services, in particular, those that are designed to work in the car. By the way, the share in the HERE company belongs to Audi, BMW and Daimler. The company maps road junctions, buildings, parks and other objects. Then this data is sold or licensed to companies that create various kinds of geographic information services.

According to the initiators of the project, with the development of a new project, people will be able to get more and more useful opportunities, and traveling by car, whether it be a car or truck, will become more efficient and enjoyable. Of course, traveling along the road is still not a flight, but smart geo-information services will help people save time and make the path more enjoyable.

This will help, and products developed by Esri, is another partner of Microsoft, whose technologies are integrated into various applications and services of the Redmond Corporation. For example, Esri's GIS operates in real-time in the Azure cloud, processing real-time map information, weather forecasts, social feeds, information from various kinds of sensors, and other data supplied by companies like HERE and TomTom. All this recently learned to visualize .



Thanks to Azure, ArcGIS platform from Esri has received new opportunities, having turned from regular ArcGIS into the same service “on steroids”. Now the cloud service provides fast data analysis, it processes tens of thousands of photos and millions of cartographic images in real time. The goal of the project is to create an integrated cartographic data graph, just as Facebook or Linkedin created graphs of people and specialties.

In the future, Microsoft plans to make its geolocation platform open, with a larger set of information needed by developers and no fewer useful tools. This platform will be integrated with other services and platforms.

The project creators cited the example of several scenarios for the use of new services. For example, this update maps in cars in real time, including changing the mode of traffic on the roads, weather information and much more. Smart cars, using this data, will be able to change the route, having complete information about the situation on different sections of the transport route. The smart systems of these cars will show the driver nearby restaurants to his taste or help you find a cell tower with the highest quality signal if a person needs to urgently talk on the phone. For passenger safety, a predictive analysis will be used.

In major cities, according to the authors of the project, it will be possible to reduce the number of traffic jams, and generally optimize traffic management. Transport and logistics companies will work more efficiently, optimizing the mode of operation and route of their vehicles.

Scientists will be able to use cloud services with a set of data, closely observing the situation with deforestation or the spread of toxic emissions in the event of another tanker accident. The capabilities of the services are complemented by deep machine learning, thanks to which the work of new products will be constantly improved and improved.