Ford has chosen mapping company HERE to support its technology to allow semi-autonomous driving in vehicles.

HERE is providing the mapping platform to detail which roads across the US and Canada would be safe for Ford cars to take over control from the driver in what Ford is branding “Hands-Free Driving”.

Ford uses the HERE Workspace to create, develop and scale location-centric data sets and services in one secure environment, providing access to HERE map content and dynamic data such as traffic and weather, location Services and location algorithms such as map-matching, along with comprehensive developer, visualisation and analytics tools to power location-based solution development and operation.  

HERE says all of the content and tools enable Ford to create their own reliable map which is a “key input” into the vehicle via the Ford cloud to determine whether or not hands-free driving is available.

Active Drive Assist then fuses the map with local sensing to provide hands-free driving when conditions are appropriate. The driver is still able to take control of the vehicle at any time. Current laws insist that, even in hands-free mode, drivers must concentrate on the road.