One of the key elements for the successful deployment of autonomous vehicles is mapping, but the process can be painstakingly time consuming. To help, Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD) and CARMERA have announced a partnership to develop an automated HD mapping system.
The two companies will conduct a proof of concept for a camera-based automation of high definition maps for urban and local roads, which will go a long way to helping create highly reliable map data, other than that already being collected on highways, which only represent less than 1% of the worldwide road network.
Cameras will be placed in Toyota test vehicles to collect images and data from areas of downtown Tokyo over several months and processed on CARMERA’s real-time platform to automatically generate HD maps.
“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,” said Mandali Khalesi, vice president of automated driving at TRI-AD.
The project will also install dashcams in vehicles to increase the range of hardware sources recording images. 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.
“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,” said Ro Gupta, CEO of CARMERA.