The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place January 5-8, 2022 and featured a live demo from Hexagon | NovAtel with the GNSS-based high-precision positioning technology used by the ACCURATE On-Board Unit (OBU).

The positioning technology, embedded within Valeo’s 5G Vulcano Telematics Control Unit (TCU), enabled autonomous driving on public roads during the conference. NovAtel illustrated that high-precision positioning is possible anywhere, enabling localization even in complex urban environments, using mass-market chipsets like the TeseoAPP from ST Microelectronics through the live demo.

Valeo’s 5G Telematics unit, combined with NovAtel’s industry-leading software positioning engine and TerraStar X correction technology, is designed for highly accurate and absolute positioning for safety critical applications like assisted driving, advanced driving support systems (ADAS) and fully autonomous vehicles. Their live demo at CES garnered the interest of industry representatives from automotive, mobile device manufacturers, autonomous vehicle makers and delivery fleet companies, each of whom experienced an introduction to NovAtel’s technology and enjoyed a ride in the demonstration vehicle.

NovAtel is the high-precision GNSS technology provider to the European Union Agency for Space Programme (EUSPA) project ACCURATE. The ACCURATE consortium, of which Valeo is a key member, has designed a high-precision positioning OBU enabling the development and deployment of complex automated driving platforms and functions.

“We were excited to introduce partners to the ACCURATE project and the high-precision positioning that is possible with Valeo and NovAtel technology,” said Andreas Niemann, business development manager at Hexagon | NovAtel. “Our industry colleagues were able to see the performance of our solution across environments under realistic conditions. They each noted the highly accurate and stable measurements of our absolute positioning system as they watched functional safety visualised in real-time.”

“Visualizing the Protection Level – our safety and integrity features – in real-time brought home how safe, reliable and accurate our positioning system is,” added Kevin Doherty, business development manager at Hexagon | NovAtel. “Customers could see the potential of our technology, not only for safety-critical autonomous vehicles but also performance benefits for high-volume markets like mobile devices and other innovative applications.”

“High-precision positioning is possible, anywhere,” explained Niemann. “Our software positioning engine and TerraStar X corrections are hardware-agnostic, placing the scalability requirements of mass markets within reach.”