The road to everywhere: are HD maps for autonomous driving sustainable? – via Autonomous Vehicle International
Mitsubishi Fuso selects Woven Alpha to power HD mapping for its ADAS – via Safe Car News
Just a few months after NVIDIA announced their acquisition of DeepMap, Mitsubishi’s Woven Planet has confirmed they’ll be buying mapping company Carmera (bonus article here). And, just in time, Mitsubishi Fuso has announced they’ll be integrating Woven Planet’s HD maps into their ADAS stack.
To me, this is two interesting pieces of news in one: First, the consensus that HD maps will be required for next-level ADAS features (Level 2+ and above) is once again confirmed across vehicle categories, leaving Tesla as basically the only OEM to double down on not using them (see also the article on Autonomous Vehicle International above). Second, the field of HD mapping is facing consolidation – and investor-backed players might have to opt for a profitable sell-off in the short term, rather than waiting for the elusive moment in time when the AV business model will fully take off.
Link to article: https://safecarnews.com/mitsubishi-fuso-selects-woven-alpha-to-power-hd-mapping-for-its-adas/
Welcome to Simulation City, The Virtual World Where Waymo Tests Its Autonomous Vehicles – via The Verge
Waymo is arguably one of the front runners in autonomous driving, and they have always been vocal about their view of simulation as a cornerstone of it: According to the company, Waymo has simulated 15 billion miles of driving, compared to “only” 20 million miles of real-world driving that have been completed.
In addition to their older simulator Car Craft, Waymo has now presented their new software, called “Simulation City” – which it hopes will bridge some gaps, such as new vehicle models. The article contains a video and a GIF giving some visual impressions, too, so feel free to steal a glance!
Link to article: https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/6/22565448/waymo-simulation-city-autonomous-vehicle-testing-virtual
Bosch builds digital twin for more accurate maps – via eeNews Europe
This month was ripe with mapping-related news! Tier1 supplier BOSCH is partnering up with Volkswagen to create a “crowdsourcing” solution, aiming to produce/update HD maps by leveraging the data of sensors on board series production vehicles – in this case the VW Golf 8. The article quotes BOSCH’s Dr. Mathias Pillin as saying “The more vehicles that provide information now and in the future, the larger and more robust the database will be for automated and assisted driving”, which seems to be in line with what other suppliers are banking on, most famously perhaps Mobileye.
It looks like crowdsourcing will truly be the holy grail of HD mapping in this decade – and it will be very interesting to see the differences in how automotive players approach this (traditional Tier1s vs. tech companies such as NVIDIA) as well as which strategies and platforms we’re going to see.
Link to article: https://www.eenewseurope.com/news/bosch-builds-digital-twin-more-accurate-maps