Skip to main content

Toyota to build HD maps for automated vehicles using camera data

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development and telematics company Carmera are conducting a ‘proof of concept’ project to develop camera-based automation of high definition (HD) maps for roads in Japan. Toyota says the project will help realise its automated mapping platform, an open software concept which supports automated driving by combining data gathered from vehicles of participating companies to generate HD maps. Cameras which use Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) components will be equipped to th
March 5, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
1686 Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development and telematics company Carmera are conducting a ‘proof of concept’ project to develop camera-based automation of high definition (HD) maps for roads in Japan.


Toyota says the project will help realise its automated mapping platform, an open software concept which supports automated driving by combining data gathered from vehicles of participating companies to generate HD maps.

Cameras which use Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) components will be equipped to the company’s test vehicles to collect data and images over several months from areas in downtown Tokyo. This information will then be processed on Carmera’s real-time platform to automatically generate HD map data.

Additionally, dashcam drive records will demonstrate automated map generation from a broader range of sources which do not have TSS.  

According to Toyota, combining these techniques with digital maps available today will provide even more reliable road information to driverless vehicles. Also, generating HD maps based on data acquired from commercially available vehicles will enable automated driving on all roads, the manufacturer says.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Nairobi looks to ITS to ease travel problems
    December 21, 2017
    Shem Oirere looks at plans to tackle chronic congestion in the Kenyan capital. Traffic jams in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are estimated to cost the country $360 million a year in terms of lost man-hours, fuel and pollution. According to Wilfred Oginga, an engineer with the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), the congestion has been exacerbated by poor regulation and enforcement of traffic rules, absence of adequate traffic management systems and poor utilisation of existing road facilities.
  • GridMatrix goes back to the future in New York City
    September 25, 2023
    Legacy traffic management infrastructure doesn’t have to be a marker of the past: software upgrades can bring it into the present in a cost-effective and timely way, says Gordon Feller
  • Rochester solves $8.5m transit question
    October 22, 2018
    RTS in Rochester, New York, saves by working with Conduent to upgrade its CAD/AVL systems rather than ripping them up and replacing them. Andrew Bardin Williams hops on for a ride. What to do, what to do?” It’s a question every transportation official must ask when faced with legacy assets, equipment and software that are nearing the end of their useful life. Nothing lasts forever, right? Freeways need to be repaired, bridges replaced, traffic management software updated and railway cars turned into
  • Here demonstrates precise mapping, data analytics
    July 31, 2015
    Here, a leader in navigation, mapping and location experiences, will come to the 2015 ITS World Congress with a powerful message: precise maps and connected data analytics hold the key to ITS. As the company points out, a city in motion generates a tremendous quantity of data, yet for the most part these data are still untapped and their potential value not fully leveraged. They are likely not shared with a broad network and probably not examined in a wider context with other data.