HERE Technologies and APCOA PARKING, Europe’s leading parking operator, announced plans for a strategic technology and commercial partnership.

Both companies intend to develop and commercialize digital parking services and HD indoor maps of parking facilities in Europe. To this end, they plan to combine their complementary capabilities in parking and mapping to jointly pursue business opportunities in the automotive and urban mobility sectors.

APCOA FLOW serves as the associated brand and underlying open digital platform for all digital parking and mobility service offerings of APCOA. In the planned collaboration, HERE takes the role as the technical integrator, supporting a true end-to-end, location-enriched, user experience throughout a driver’s journey. Key touchpoints for users will be in-car infotainment systems, apps and websites.

Initially, the two partners plan to enhance APCOA’s almost 10,000 sites in 13 European countries with location data and services on the HERE platform. Based on this, they aim to build a joint parking solution for car makers, mobility service providers and smart cities. Further target segments will include fleet operators, smart logistics and TIER 1 suppliers. The intention is to make this solution available and marketed through the HERE Marketplace.

In addition, both companies are also looking to kickstart a joint initiative for the creation of HD 3D indoor maps of parking garages in Europe. This would enable the development of new services like autonomous valet parking and pre-booking of parking spaces for seamless end-to-end routing as well as augmented reality-related experiences for end users.

“We are very excited to join forces with HERE to enhance the mobility experience of drivers across Europe with seamless digital parking services”, states Frank van der Sant, Chief Commercial Officer at APCOA. “And the development of HD 3D maps of our car parks for indoor navigation will be a real first to market innovation made available on a larger scale.”

“With our complementary strengths in parking and location technology, a partnership between APCOA and HERE is really a natural fit”, said Jorgen Behrens, Chief Product Officer at HERE Technologies. “We are looking forward to jointly building a broad portfolio of indoor parking maps for wayfinding and autonomous parking and also further expand the HERE Marketplace offering with this new content.”

Source: HERE Technologies