Computer vision company Nexar has released its Driver Behavioral Mapping data, which provides an insight into different road segments, driver types, weather and road conditions. Nexar’s dash cams capture a wide range of crowd-sourced driving data of actual human driving behavior and are then aggregated and overlaid on a high-definition base map to be used for autonomous and assisted driving.
As local agents who have driven in an area know more than agents who have not, either autonomous or human, AVs will use Nexar’s real-time data to humanize driving by training according to the local driving culture and mapping crucial driving habits. AVs can use these maps to determine when to switch lanes before a turn, how to decelerate when cornering, where virtual stop lines lie, and more.
“A self-driving car that drives only according to a raw map would be an immediate danger due to its robotic style of driving,” said Eran Shir, co-founder and CEO of Nexar. “It’s not necessarily that humans drive better than robots, it’s that AVs need a lot of human data obtained by those who have driven through a particular area. Without even being aware, we make hundreds of decisions that adapt to local conditions, culture and comfort each time we get behind the wheel. AVs need to sync into this behavior in order to provide the most secure and comfortable ride.”
The Driver Behavioral Map accounts for speed distribution, acceleration distribution, turn probability at intersections, switching lanes probability and virtual crosswalks, among many other areas. Providing a smooth and safe ride, the behaviorally trained AVs will better understand, measure and benchmark safety-related behavior (stop lines, school zones, etc), and will drive based on road conditions and visibility.
“Nexar is used by both commercial and ordinary drivers, during all hours of the day, on different road segments and in all weather conditions,” continued Shir. “There is no more efficient or cost-effective way to collect this diverse set of human driving data that is such a crucial part of our journey to advance a safe future for autonomous driving. With the right data, an AV operating off of Nexar’s Driver Behavioral Map will continue on the road to becoming indistinguishable from a human-driven car in terms of the flow of driving.”