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

  • Passport roundtable examines London’s kerb space priorities
    March 19, 2019
    UK congestion is getting worse, in part due to the influx of deliveries coming into cities. At a roundtable discussion in London, software provider Passport examined new ways in which local authorities can work together to better manage the kerb. Ben Spencer listens in Competition for kerb space is one of the major conundrums of modern urban mobility. Some authorities are being creative about it, but good practice is not widespread. “There are individual pockets of good work going on with cities who a
    Read More
  • Space transport systems: a new frontier
    November 12, 2024
    What would transport systems look like in space settlements? And what can that tell us about transport now on Earth? Dimitrios Milakis, of the Institute of Transport Research, looks for answers in the stars
    Read More
  • Traffic management is increasingly image conscious
    January 27, 2025
    At the Vision show in Stuttgart, Germany, a wide variety of traffic-related solutions were on display. Adam Hill takes the temperature of the industry…
    Read More
  • Autopilot highlights shape of Things
    March 30, 2020
    Driverless vehicles require rich data to operate safely, and a European consortium is harnessing the Internet of Things to help.
    Read More

Highlighted Content