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NDS.Live Launch at NDS Public Conference

23. November 2020

It’s finally here: NDS.Live, the update for the NDS standard, has been officially launched at the NDS Public Conference and is now available. The first release of NDS.Live focuses on use cases for map data in ADAS and autonomous driving. The release of additions to cover navigation use cases will follow in early 2021.

Source: NDS

Since the NDS standard was first introduced, technology has evolved tremendously. Map data needs to be much more detailed and precise to support automated and autonomous driving functions, cars are being equipped with data connectivity so map data can be stored and processed in the cloud, and new use cases for map data are appearing left, right, and center. With the new NDS.Live launch, the specification now supports these new requirements and use cases and thus combines the best of our past experience with today’s realities and tomorrow’s new possibilities.

NDS.Live is not a database, it is a distributed map data system.

Fabian Klebert, NDS Association Technical Coordinator

NDS.Live follows the principle of a distributed system, meaning it allows driver assistance, navigation, and drive automation systems to pull together map data packages from different NDS.Live Smart Layers, from different data service providers or clouds and to then merge them into one comprehensive pool of information. This modular approach ensures much more flexibility. The modularity enables updates of individual data packages at higher rates, e.g. speed limits, while other more static data can be updated less frequently. The modularity of NDS.Live also enables a faster evolution of those parts of the NDS.Live specification that will need to evolve at a faster pace as we are moving into Automated Driving that still has a steep learning curve. And last but not least, the NDS.Live Smart Layers makes a step-by-step migration of a system from NDS.Classic map databases to NDS.Live data services possible.

The official NDS.Live launch was presented by Fabian Klebert, NDS Association Technical Coordinator, at the NDS Public Conference:

Of course, testing of NDS.Live is already running at full speed. The NDS.Live Joint Development Team is working on a set of implementations for the first SD and HD ADAS maps. As part of that, some NDS members have worked on their NDS.Live implementation projects and presented these at the NDS Public Conference in September 2020:

And finally, if you want to learn more about the intricacies of the NDS.Live specification, don’t forget to check out our NDS.Live blog series, starting with NDS.Live: An update for the future of navigation.

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