By combining maps automatically generated via the techniques employed by Toyota and Carmera, reliable road information to automated vehicles in the future could be provided.
28 Feb 2019 | 9667 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Toyota Motor Corporation and Carmeraare looking at developing a concept for camera-based automation of high definition maps for urban and surface roads. Toyota is contributing to this project through Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD) which considers it as a first step towards realising an open software platform concept known ...
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Toyota Motor Corporation and Carmera are looking at developing a concept for camera-based automation of high definition maps for urban and surface roads. Toyota is contributing to this project through Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD) which considers it as a first step towards realising an open software platform concept known as Automated Mapping Platform (AMP).
Automated driving requires highly reliable road information based on HD map data. While the creation of highway HD maps is underway, this coverage represents less than 1 percent (Assuming HD maps available for the entire highway road network for the US, China, Germany and Japan (0.23M km), this represents less than 1% of the global road network (39.5M km))of the worldwide road network. The next challenge is to create and maintain maps for urban areas and local roads that go beyond the highway road network.
In addition, by placing commercially available "dashcam" drive recorders (Refers to Denso-made data-transmission driving recorder) in Toyota test vehicles, the project will demonstrate automated map generation from a broader range of sources that do not have TSS. This draws upon Carmera's millions of miles of driving video collected, structured and enriched through safety monitoring partnerships with professional fleets in other complex environments like New York City.
By combining maps automatically generated via the techniques employed in this project with digital maps available today, it will be possible to provide even more reliable road information to automated vehicles in the future. And by generating HD maps based on data acquired from commercially available vehicles around the world, automated driving can be enabled on all roads.
Mandali Khalesi, vice-president, automated driving at TRI-AD, said: "Currently automated driving map development relies on highly expensive specialized mapping vehicles deployed in limited numbers, and a lengthy manual process for reliable HD map creation. We're excited to partner with CARMERA to automate HD map generation and help enable automated driving mobility for all."
Ro Gupta, CEO at Carmera, said: "CARMERA was founded to deploy next-generation street intelligence at low cost, high speed and automotive-grade reliability, in order to democratize autonomous mobility at global scale. We're excited to collaborate with TRI-AD in putting the flexibility and modularity of our platform to work to build HD maps, beginning with one of the largest and most dynamic urban environments in the world."