Skip to main content

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

  • TomTom selected by Volvo for Drive Me programme
    March 9, 2017
    Volvo Cars has selected TomTom’s HD Map to power the first phase of the Volvo Drive Me programme, the company’s research project into autonomous driving. This will see real drivers will integrating autonomous driving into their daily lives on public roads. The first group of drivers will be recruited in Gothenburg, Sweden, with further pilot schemes organised in London and China. TomTom’s HD Map, is a digital map-based product that helps automated vehicles precisely locate themselves on the road. TomTom
  • Intelligent powertrains could make cost cuts
    April 30, 2020
    Intelligent vehicle powertrains could be a way of making substantial cuts in operating costs and emissions. David Crawford looks at some far-reaching initiatives in Europe and North America
  • Keeping cyber criminals from your website
    November 10, 2017
    If a hacker can penetrate your website, they can do business as you. Joe Dysart explains how you and your customers may not discover the fraud for some time. In the latest twist on identity theft, hackers are clandestinely taking over business websites - and then brazenly billing visiting customers as if the sites are their own.
  • Traffic management to the fore at Vision 2014
    December 8, 2014
    Colin Sowman reviews some of the traffic-related exhibits at the 2014 Vision Show in Stuttgart. Traffic was a major theme at this years’ Vision Show in Stuttgart and several manufacturers used the exhibition to highlight their traffic-related equipment and applications.