Recently, China’s largest and the world’s third largest digital map provider, NavInfo, announced that it has signed a CNS (Connected Navigation Services) service agreement with BMW (China). NavInfo will provide BMW’s products for sale in China from 2021 to 2025 with car-related system related services including dynamic traffic information, route planning, electric vehicle path planning, and calculation of remaining mileage.
NavInfo will provide car-related system related services including dynamic traffic information, route planning, electric vehicle path planning, and electric vehicle residual mileage calculation for BMW’s 2021-2025 (which will be automatically renewed until 2029 after the agreement expires) mass-market vehicles sold in China.
NavInfo has been committed to the development of digital maps and has seized the opportunities of the era of autonomous driving and intelligent networking. At present, NavInfo has formed core business capability such as autonomous driving map, high-precision positioning, and research and development of car-level chips for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) and autonomous driving, and has shaped itself into an autonomous driving solution provider. NavInfo announced in the announcement that the signing of the CNS service agreement with BMW has accelerated the mass production application of the company’s car system solution.
In addition to the CNS service cooperation, NavInfo and BMW have also cooperated in the field of high-precision maps. In February 2019, the two parties signed a license agreement for autopilot maps and related services. NavInfo will provide BMW with high-precision map services for autonomous driving.
For the Chinese autopilot industry, the cooperation between NavInfo and BMW has a positive role to play. According to BMW’s plan, the first production model iNEXT with L3 autopilot capability will be officially launched in 2021. And, since 2021, BMW will also conduct L4 automatic driving tests worldwide with the iNEXT team. In-depth cooperation with a partner from China will help BMW’s autonomous driving career in China.
