What happens to traffic when you turn a historic highway into a scenic park?
HERE Technologies — 17 June 2025
3 min read
17 May 2019
I believe it’s important to understand that we have arrived at a time when we have more capacity to solve problems than anyone in the past could have ever predicted.
This is a very good thing because there are some big problems that need to be solved. The world population has doubled in 50 years, meanwhile, many city designs and infrastructures are at least that old, if not two or three times that age. We all encounter traffic, we generate pollution, roads and bridges and tunnels are getting older, and room to grow is scarce.
We have the power to face these challenges. By looking at the full scope of the world — the combination of all our physical parts and spaces, as well as a digital understanding behind how those parts fit together — we can affect real change. We can make things more efficient, functional, and friendly, but we can’t afford to stand still. We’re going to move forward, and that movement will create a New Reality.
A new reality will be all about location data, and this is where HERE brings answers to the table. Location data covers everything. It can pertain to indoor or outdoor spaces. It can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Its conditions are constantly changing and fluctuating. What we provide is a highly-precise digital canvas of the physical world that encompasses all of these elements and allows data to be layered on top.
This is a powerful solution. Now cities, businesses, and consumers bring their own data into the context of location. They can see how things move around and identify inefficiencies. They can more easily find the gaps they have in their data, and they can identify the other providers with whom they can mix their data to enrich a better solution.
At HERE, we have made our name by providing the best location data available anywhere. We started in cars, then we moved to mobile devices, and now we have extended partnerships with insurance, logistics, infrastructure, software companies, IoT, and many more segments. Many of our partners are in competing fields of industry, but we’ve earned our position as a trusted data partner for everyone involved.
All of that data combined — what we call the Reality Index — is the foundation we’ve built that will enable everyone to share data, and create new data services and solutions. We’re going to see new applications, we’re going to see new services, and we’ll see more efficiency in how our cities grow.
We want to open up location technology for everyone at a global level, and that’s the journey we’re on.
Edzard Overbeek
CEO, HERE Technologies
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Edzard Overbeek
CEO, HERE Technologies
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