South Korean tech giant LG and Here, the company behind Here Maps, have signed a partnership agreement that will see LG's telematics technology combined with Here's mapping data from its Open Location Platform, to create a secure data communications hub for self-driving cars.

Future autonomous vehicles will have sensors fitted in their advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), comprising cameras, radar and lidar (which measures distance) that will be able to tap into the new hub to recognise road signs, speed limits, lane markings, stop signs and more, all of which are features of Here's HD Live Map cloud-based map service.

Gathered information will be sent to the cloud, along with data collected from other nearby vehicles via V2X (vehicle-to-everything). All information will then be analysed and transmitted back to the telematics systems on the car to provide custom driving information. 

LG will provide the technologies for cars to communicate all the various information, supporting GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and LG's engineers are also working on implementing 5G data transmission. 5G will allow for up to 90 per cent faster data transmission than 4G LTE and will also provide a significant reduction in latency, which will be essential for future autonomous vehicles.

It's not clear which vehicles will get the new technology, but considering Here was bought by a consortium made up of Audi, BMW and Daimler, we'd expect it to feature heavily in future self-driving German cars.