Autonomous vehicle accuracy mapping from TomTom

Pride of place on satellite navigation pioneer TomTom’s stand is very high resolution 3D mapping, initially for Germany, which it says provides the 10cm accuracy necessary for highly automated vehicles. Its mainstream mapping is also high definition meaning the image can be used on any size of screen – as visitors can see.
October 8, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Matthieu Campion of TomTom with the company's technology

Pride of place on satellite navigation pioneer 1692 TomTom’s stand is very high resolution 3D mapping, initially for Germany, which it says provides the 10cm accuracy necessary for highly automated vehicles. Its mainstream mapping is also high definition meaning the image can be used on any size of screen – as visitors can see.

Also highlighted is the company’s smartphone navigation app – increasingly favoured by occasional users of navigation services while it finds regular users such as delivery drivers are staying with dedicated devices. 
Marketing manager, automotive, Matthieu Campion said his company has many reciprocal agreements with road authorities to both receive and deliver traffic information and is working on algorithms to predict traffic conditions over the coming 15 minutes.  

And with changes happening on 15% of major routes each year, the company is working on speeding the verification and map updating process to a matter of a few days, or potentially hours, rather than weeks or a month as it is currently. “Much depends on where the users’ maps are actually located; in their devices (which are currently updated quarterly) or on our servers which can be readily updated,” says Campion.

There is currently discussions with the vehicle manufacturers about a strategy for high frequency updates and whether to update the area around the vehicle or along the selected route.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Taking the long view of ITS
    March 24, 2015
    Caroline Visser believes the ITS industry must present a coherent case for consideration of the technology to become part of transport policy and planning. As ITS advisor and road finance director for the International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva, Caroline Visser is well placed to evaluate quantifying the benefits of ITS implementation – a topic about which there is little agreement and even less consistency. She is pressing to get some consistency in the evaluation of ITS deployments through the use of
    Read More
  • New solutions for catching texting drivers
    October 28, 2016
    Many countries have laws prohibiting texting while driving but enforcement is proving difficult – David Crawford looks at some new approaches being tried by authorities. Finding definitive solutions – technological, regulatory and educational - to the potentially lethal practice of people driving while using mobile phones is proving elusive, while the stakes grow higher.
    Read More
  • Loop detection still has a part in traffic management
    March 2, 2012
    Bob Lees, co-founder of Diamond Consulting Services, on why the loop detector just refuses to go away. The more strident proponents of newer and emergent detection technologies are quick to highlight what they see as the disadvantages, and hence the imminent passing, of the humble inductive loop. The more prosaic will acknowledge that loops continue to have a part to play in traffic management, falling back on the assertion that it is all a question of application. And yet year after year the loop, despite
    Read More
  • Caltrans develops remote remedy for ailing VMS
    February 18, 2014
    A remote diagnostic system for variable message signs keeps Caltrans staff safer and makes them more efficient. District 12 of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) maintains roads in Orange County including 292 route miles of freeway lanes and 240 directional miles of full-time high occupancy vehicle or carpool lanes. All of these lanes are controlled from the district’s transportation management centre (TMC) using a network of 58 variable message signs (VMS) positioned alongside or abo
    Read More

Highlighted Content