Wednesday, January 27, 2010
DENVER & Lippstadt, Germany — Intermap Technologies, the foremost worldwide 3D digital mapping company, today announced a collaboration with Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., a leading provider of innovative driver assistance systems, regarding a predictive front lighting system based on Intermap's reliable 3D road geometries.
The partnership integrates Intermap's high-resolution 3D road geometries, and information supplied by camera systems in an automobile, into Hella's front lighting demonstration system — ultimately providing a significant increase in visibility for drivers at night and during inclement weather by automatically directing the headlamp before the driver manually steers the vehicle into a bend or up and down a slope.
"Intermap´s highly accurate 3D road data is a key enabler of our map-based predictive front lighting application," said Dr.-Ing. Georg Florissen, Hella's head of advanced development, driver assistance systems lighting. "Overall, this integration of digital map data provides a comprehensive and secure system, combining the data with camera and other sensors to take our predictive front lighting systems to the next level."
Intermap senior vice president, automotive group, Eric DesRoche, said "Intermap has developed the world's only database encompassing accurate 3D road geometry for every road in the United States and Western Europe. It is important that vehicle safety systems encompass reliable 3D road vectors for all classes of roads, including smaller rural roads, as these are often where the more difficult curves, dips, and slopes are encountered. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that certain vehicle functions, such as lighting, can be operated via an independent 3D map database, separate from onboard 2D navigation systems. This lighting application is the first of many ADAS and safety applications, leveraging Intermap's reliable 3D maps, which we expect to see in the next generation of passenger vehicles."
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, adaptive headlight systems are meant to improve visibility on curved roads. Accidents related to this type of driving account for four percent of front-to-rear, single-driver, and sideswipe same direction crashes in the U.S. — or approximately 143,000 per year. Adaptive headlight systems could help reduce the number of related fatal crashes from the nearly 2,500 currently in the U.S. every year.
For more information about Intermap automotive, visit www.intermap.com/automotive or visit www.hella.comto learn more about Hella KGaA Hueck & Co.
About Intermap Technologies
Intermap (TSX: IMP.TO) is a preeminent digital mapping company creating uniform high-resolution 3D digital models of the earth's surface. The Company has proactively remapped entire countries and built uniform national databases, called NEXTMap®, consisting of affordably priced elevation data and geometric images of unprecedented accuracy. Demand for NEXTMap data is growing as new commercial applications emerge within the GIS, engineering, automotive, GPS maps, insurance risk assessment, oil and gas, hydrology, renewable energy, environmental planning, wireless communications, transportation, aviation, and 3D visualization markets.
Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap has offices in Calgary, Detroit, Jakarta, London, Munich, Ottawa, Paris, Prague, and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.Intermap.com,www.mobile.AccuTerra.com or www.AccuTerra.com.
NEXTMap® and AccuTerra® are registered trademarks of Intermap Technologies Corporation.
About Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. Hella is a globally positioned, independent family-owned company with 23,000 employees at 70 locations in more than 30 countries. The Hella Group develops and manufactures components and systems for lighting technology and electronics for the automotive industry, and also has one of the largest trade organisations for automotive parts, accessories, diagnostics and services in the world. In addition, joint-venture companies produce complete vehicle modules, air-conditioning systems and vehicle electric systems. With more than 3,200 people working in research and development, Hella is one of the most important innovation drivers in the market. In addition, with sales of 3.3 billion euros in fiscal year 2008-09, the Hella Group is one of the Top 50 automotive parts suppliers in the world and one of the 100 largest German industrial companies.
For more information, please contact:
Intermap Technologies
Eric DesRoche, Senior Vice President, Automotive
+1 303-708-0955
edesroche@intermap.com
Kevin Thomas, Vice President, Marketing
+1-303-708-0955
kthomas@intermap.com
Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. Dr. Markus Richter, Company Spokesperson
Markus.Richter@hella.com
+49 (0) 941 38-7545
Intermap Reader Advisory Certain information provided in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You can find a discussion of such risks and uncertainties in our Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law.
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