The unmatched quality of HERE Maps content

We talk a lot about how our maps provide the best quality location experience available today. We’ve even shown you how they are better than the other maps available today in a side-by-side comparison. Now, we’re going to give you a glimpse at how we set the standard for quality in the industry.

For HERE mapmakers, quality is a nonstop process that results not only in an accurate map, but one that is rich in content and extensive in coverage. To maintain and improve this final product, our mapmakers have spent decades refining a quality framework, or a continuous improvement cycle, which consists of three major activities done in parallel: Plan, Update, and Test.

Plan for maintenanceThe real world changes daily, from massive infrastructure changes to local businesses opening and closing. To meet the challenge of keeping up with the real world, we rely on a number of data sources and innovative tools to detect change and trigger action.

Analyzing activity data and source metrics allow us to focus our map maintenance resources in the optimal manner – where a lot of change is actually happening and people like you are regularly using our maps. We pull this data into proprietary heat maps to get a faster and more efficient understanding of where both change is occurring and people are using digital maps.  On our heat maps, small sections of the map light up based on probe data, user map reports and other input, alerting us as to where we need to conduct updates to make changes in the database.

We also rely on our global team of over 1,200 geographic analysts who “own” the map of their area of the world to continuously search for changes in reality. These analysts are local experts – they drive the roads, live the in the area they “own,” and speak the local language – so they have first-hand knowledge of activities affecting their piece of the map. And we continue to grow our fleet of the most advanced field collection vehicles in the world like theHERE True vehicles.

Further, community feedback becomes essential in helping us cover every corner of the world.  Consumer and expert communities, such as university geographers, provide us with updated information, adding to both the richness and coverage of our map.

Execute updatesUnderstanding where change is occurring is only the first step. On average, we make 2.7 million daily edits to our database, a volume that demands quality assurances at every step.

We have a host of tools at our disposal to execute these updates, from using more sources than anyone else to employing one of our local geographic analysts in their area of the world. As we look to enhance these processes, we are developing ways to automate certain validations and rely on crowd-sourced information via communities like Map Creator and Trapster.

Test for accuracyThe final phase in our framework is to check our updates against the real world. We test over 350 cities annually, matching what’s in our database to what is actually current in the real world. We develop complex drive plans that our field analysts drive to compare our map to reality and understand exactly how well our maps match reality. If needed, corrective actions are taken on both local and systemic issues.

Our continued commitment to qualityOur commitment to quality never ends. We continue to refine our processes, innovate more, and add new tools, to make us faster and make HERE Maps content better. Our foundation in automotive-quality data enables us to build the world’s best map and leverage it for the future of location.

You don’t get this kind of expertise in mapmaking overnight; we’ve built it over the last 27 years. And we are using that experience to build the most true-to-life map no matter your location need.