GPS World

Tag: high-definition maps

  • Genesys launches high-definition ADAS maps for India

    Genesys launches high-definition ADAS maps for India

    Genesys has developed India’s first large-scale high-definition maps engineered specifically for vehicles enabled with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

    Covering more than 1 lakh km of India’s national highways, expressways and strategic corridors, this initiative marks one of India’s most ambitious road intelligence programs and establishes a new benchmark for automotive-grade precision.

    India’s highways account for a disproportionately high share of road fatalities, driven by fast-moving traffic, inconsistent lane discipline, and limited real-time awareness for drivers and vehicles. HD maps narrow this gap by adding the centimeter-level context that traditional maps cannot provide — lane geometry, curves, slopes, signage, barriers and localization cues that help ADAS systems anticipate danger instead of merely reacting to it. This is a big leap forward from current sensor-based ADAS systems, Genesys said.

    The HD maps include ADAS-critical features such as lane geometry, road markings, barriers, signage, medians, elevation and curvature profiles, and localization objects like poles and gantries — all processed to achieve centimeter-grade precision.

    CORS network plays a key role

    To achieve the centimeter-level accuracy required for ADAS Level 2 functionality, Genesys relies on the Survey of India’s Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) network. Real-time GNSS correction signals along major corridors dramatically strengthen field operations, allowing survey teams to capture lane-level and asset-level detail that meets global automotive standards.

    This work builds on the existing memorandum of understanding between Genesys and Survey of India, enabling collaboration on digital twin projects, national mapping programs, and high-accuracy geospatial missions.

    These datasets are owned by Genesys and can be licensed across industries, creating opportunities in commercial fleet navigation, logistics optimization, mobility platforms, safety analytics and automotive R&D.

  • European project researches automated map creation for cars

    European project researches automated map creation for cars

    Image: DedMityay/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
    Image: DedMityay/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

    A new European project is researching automated collection of geodata and production of high-definition maps.

    The GAMMS project is funded by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), and will take place until the end of 2023. Galileo will be the main enabler of GAMMS, given its precise, multipath-resistant measurements and its upcoming high-accuracy service (HAS).

    A European consortium, led by the French map service provider GEOSAT, will investigate how the combination of self-driving mapping cars (autonomous mobile-mapping systems) and artificial intelligence-based mapping software can automate the production of high-definition maps.

    These maps are used by driverless vehicles and need to be provably accurate, complete and up to date. Fast, sustainable production of trustworthy maps is the goal.

    Consortium members include:

    • GEOSAT — map-making and machine learning
    • GeoNumerics — multi-sensor fusion and accurate navigation
    • Sensible4 — robotics and autonomous driving
    • DEIMOS Engenharia — GNSS and Galileo receiver development
    • EPFL — sensor and vehicle dynamic modelling
    • Solid Potato — multi-spectral laser scanning
    • PILDO Labs — regulatory specialists
    • ENIDE — communication specialists

    “It is as challenging as interesting to bring together the geodetic estimation methods with the navigation ones in multi-sensor systems powered by EGNSS and its differentiators, VDMs (vehicle data management systems) and visual features,” said Marta Blázquez, responsible for GAMMS at GeoNumerics. “GAMMS will boost the development of NEXA, our trajectory determination platform, and GENA, our adjustment platform for dynamic networks, in the direction of trustworthy navigation.”

    GeoNumerics is responsible for computing the mapping vehicle trajectory (a time series of position, velocity and attitude coordinates) by integrating the manifold of sensors available in a mapping vehicle.

    Measurements of inertial units and atomic clocks will be fused with measurements of all available navigation satellites (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou), odometers, cameras and laser scanners. For this purpose, GeoNumerics’ GENA and NEXA systems will be further developed to include new sensor mathematical models and to improve its robust estimation methods.

  • Toyota teams with Carmera on HD maps for autonomous cars

    Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development Inc. (TRI-AD) and Carmera Inc. have joined forces to conduct a proof of concept about developing camera-based automation of high-definition (HD) maps for urban and surface roads.

    This is the first step towards realizing TRI-AD’s open software platform concept known as automated mapping platform (AMP) to support the scalability of highly automated driving, by combining data gathered from vehicles of participating companies to generate HD maps.

    Automated driving requires highly reliable road information based on HD map data. While the creation of highway HD maps is underway, this coverage represents less than 1% of the worldwide road network.

    The next challenge is to create and maintain maps for urban areas and local roads that go beyond the highway road network.

    TRI-AD / CARMERA mapmaking from vehicle cameras in downtown Tokyo. (Image: Toyota/Carmera)
    TRI-AD/Carmera mapmaking from vehicle cameras in downtown Tokyo. (Image: Toyota/Carmera)

    In this proof of concept, the two companies will place cameras in Toyota test vehicles to collect data over several months from areas of downtown Tokyo. The cameras installed in the test vehicles use Toyota Safety Sense components that Toyota installs on its vehicles globally.

    Images and other data gathered from TSS will be processed on Carmera’s real-time platform to automatically generate HD map data.

    In addition, by placing commercially available dashcam drive recorders in Toyota test vehicles, the project will demonstrate automated map generation from a broader range of sources that do not have TSS.

    This draws upon Carmera’s millions of miles of driving video collected, structured and enriched through safety monitoring partnerships with professional fleets in other complex environments like New York City.

    Carmera feature detection image in downtown Tokyo. (Image: Toyota/Carmera)
    Carmera feature detection image in downtown Tokyo.
    (Image: Toyota/Carmera)

    By combining maps automatically generated via the techniques employed in this project with digital maps available today, it will be possible to provide even more reliable road information to automated vehicles in the future. And by generating HD maps based on data acquired from commercially available vehicles around the world, automated driving can be enabled on all roads.

    “Currently automated driving map development relies on highly expensive specialized mapping vehicles deployed in limited numbers, and a lengthy manual process for reliable HD map creation,” said Mandali Khalesi, vice president of automated driving at TRI-AD. “We’re excited to partner with Carmera to automate HD map generation and help enable automated driving mobility for all.”

    “Carmera was founded to deploy next-generation street intelligence at low cost, high speed and automotive-grade reliability, in order to democratize autonomous mobility at global scale,” Ro Gupta, CEO at Carmera, said. “We’re excited to collaborate with TRI-AD in putting the flexibility and modularity of our platform to work to build HD maps, beginning with one of the largest and most dynamic urban environments in the world.”