Toyota enters partnership to build HD maps for AVs from space

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), technology company Maxar Technologies and NTT Data are working together to build high-definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles (AV) using satellite imagery. TRI-AD carried out an analysis, saying that current HD maps cover less than 1% of the global road network and there is a need to broaden the coverage of urban areas and local roads before AVs can become a mainstream mobility technology. A HD map created from satellite imagery would all
May 3, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
1686 Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), technology company Maxar Technologies and NTT Data are working together to build high-definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles (AV) using satellite imagery.


TRI-AD carried out an analysis, saying that current HD maps cover less than 1% of the global road network and there is a need to broaden the coverage of urban areas and local roads before AVs can become a mainstream mobility technology.

A HD map created from satellite imagery would allow the driving software to compare multiple data sources and signal the car to take action to stay safe, the company adds.

Utilising Maxar’s Geospatial Big Data Platform, imagery from the company’s satellite imagery library will be fed into NTT Data’s specialised algorithms using artificial intelligence to extract information to generate the road network. TRI-AD will then make HD maps available for delivery from its cloud into Toyota test vehicles.

Mandali Khalesi, vice president of automated driving at TRI-AD, says advances in electronics and aerospace engineering are leading to higher resolutions and more frequent updates of global imagery from space-based assets.

“Additionally, machine learning is helping automate the discovery and integration of semantic relationships between road elements within image data,” Khalesi adds.

NTT Data, an IT services provider, will use its artificial intelligence and enhanced image-processing resources to expand the coverage of HD maps.

Katsuichi Sonoda, vice president and head of NTT Data’s social infrastructure solution sector, says: “In the future, we hope to map worldwide road networks from space using our enhanced image-processing expertise.”

Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Driverless cars will be on UK roads within four years, says minister
    October 4, 2018
    Fully driverless cars will enter the UK in three to four years, says transport secretary Chris Grayling at the Conservative Party conference in the city of Birmingham. A report by Reuters says Grayling is committed to ending the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040. “Newer diesel cars today are cleaner than ever before and of course there will be a role for diesel for many years to come as technology evolves,” Grayling adds. However, OpenText has carried out a survey of 2,000 UK consumers,
    Read More
  • Toyota Research Institute boosts autonomous vehicle development team
    March 11, 2016
    Toyota Research Institute (TRI), which is developing which is artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles, has hired the software engineering team of Massachusetts-based Jaybridge Robotics, which has focused on reliable automation of industrial vehicles, working with partners across a range of industrial applications including agriculture, mining, marine, and rail. The former Jaybridge team has joined TRI's Cambridge, Massachusetts, facility. Like everyone else at TRI, they will be working closely wi
    Read More
  • HMI commence third driverless vehicle trial at La Trobe University, Melbourne
    November 15, 2017
    HMI Technologies (HMI) has launched its third self-driving vehicle trial with a consortium of partners at La Trobe University, in Melbourne, Australia. The trial intends to further help authorities and commercial businesses to research the benefits and limitations of the technology, and identify how it will become part of the public transport network of tomorrow. The La Trobe Autonobus (LTA) will soon connect students and staff at the University campus to other transport network nodes such as trams and bus
    Read More
  • Toyota, BMW, Allianz to partner with autonomous vehicle startup Nauto
    October 11, 2016
    Autonomous vehicle technology company Nauto has entered into strategic agreements with BMW i Ventures and Toyota Research Institute, as well as with Allianz Ventures, part of financial service provider and insurance company Allianz Group. These companies have invested in Nauto and are working with the company on autonomous vehicle development using the Nauto cloud-based data learning platform. Nauto has developed deep learning capabilities that run both in the cloud and on retrofit devices that can be mo
    Read More

Highlighted Content