The Crucial Role Mapping Systems Play in the Future of Autonomous Cars

If you feel you’re spending more time in traffic than ever before, it’s not just your imagination.

Traffic has got worse in many major cities in the world, which not only increases the time we need to get to a destination, but it also makes us feel frustrated and fluttery.

We also have more distractions behind the wheel, and this all translates into more accidents and more people getting injured or losing their lives on the road.

It’s a big problem, and it has a very human cause.

Autonomous cars promise to substantially contribute to the solution by removing the human from the driver’s seat and turning them into passengers.

It makes sense because AI-driven systems are endlessly better than people at performing repetitive, tedious maneuvers which require ongoing attention.

And digital maps play a vital role in this shift as they provide the infrastructure needed to power the future of fully autonomous vehicles and smooth the transition to a new technology.

If this is a topic you want to learn more about, make sure to keep on reading.

How Autonomous Vehicles See and Interact with the World

The key to understanding the importance of digital maps in the context of autonomous cars is learning how autonomous vehicles perceive the road and how they need to react to it in real-life.

It all starts with the vehicle figuring out its location: where exactly it is in the world. And it does this by taking a digital map and its sensor data and putting these two elements together.

The result is the frame of the map, the foundation. Think of it as a geometric understanding of the world.

To that, we add what the car sees in the moment. This includes:

• other vehicles
• motorists
• cyclists
• pedestrians
• objects like cones
• streets signs.

Today’s technology has enabled cars to “see” the world in detail. But in order for autonomous vehicles to deliver on their promise of making driving safer and more convenient, it has to do better than that.

It has to not only see, but also predict and react to different actions taking place on the road.

And that means knowing as much about the road as possible and associating different actions with those road particularities.

For instance, if there’s a section of the road where two lanes turn into one, the self-driving car needs to know that the vehicle in front of it is going to make a lane change and thus adjust to that reality and respond in the moment.

Autonomous Cars Require a Completely New Type of Map

Self-driving systems need a lot of information about the road, the environment, as well as other vehicles which are in traffic to make autonomous correct decisions about what to do next.

And that means they require a new kind of map with these characteristics:

• The data autonomous cars rely on needs to be precise enough to safely guide them without having human assistance. Therefore, we need high-definition maps which compile a level of detail like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
• Real-time updates: Because they are constantly changing, the roads have an unpredictable component as well. Think of road maintenance sites, accidents, cars getting pulled over by the cops. This all influences how autonomous cars must react to the reality of the road. So, it’s essential that the digital maps are constantly updated to reflect the realities of the present moment.

Ultimately, building a digital map for autonomous cars is all about collecting big data and orchestrating that data in a way which makes sense for the industry. Read more about this next.

How Data Becomes a Digital Map

Collecting all the information which needs to be fed into a map that can safely guide autonomous cars on the road requires an immense effort and use of resources.

Here are a few ways in which data needed for maps is being gathered now:

• by using satellite and aerial imagery as a starting point for drafting the maps.
• through fleets of cars outfitted with GPS, cameras and lidar (which is a laser-based way of measuring distances).
• through manual data collection tools.
• through GPS devices inside fleet vehicles owned by strategic partners of those developing the mapping system. Truck companies are a good example of partners because their cars are constantly on the road.

The above-mentioned methods are employed for the purpose of building a real-time digital representation of the world.

Nokia HERE, the maps division of the Finnish communications company, is just one company investing in the development of this technology meant to serve all location-based services.

You can learn more about it and Nokia’s plan to leverage it by watching the video below:

An increasing number of companies are mapping their ways to a self-driving future, with Uber, Nokia Here, Google, being just a few notable mentions.

But thanks to community-driven projects like OpenStreetMap, the future of the digital maps is something which we can all make happen.

Through OpenStreetCam, a free and open platform for street-level imagery, anyone can contribute images using a smartphone and open source apps.

By detecting salient features from the uploaded images, such as signs, lanes and road curves, the OpenStreetCam app plays an essential role when it comes to expending OpenStreetMap and thus powering map data on thousands of:

• websites
• mobile apps
• and hardware devices.

Another thing you should know about OpenStreetMap is that:

• it relies on local knowledge. OpenStreetMap is built and maintained by a community of dedicated mappers who verify that the map is accurate and in sync with the realities of the present moment. For this purpose, contributors from all over the world use aerial imagery, GPS devices and low-tech field maps.
• is open data. This means that everyone is free to use the geospatial data for any purpose, including that of advancing autonomous driving. The only thing you need to do is credit OpenStreetMap and those who have contributed to it.

What makes OpenStreetMap so unique and unlike any other project is that ultimately supports and enables the creation of an editable map of the world which everyone can benefit from.

Go to www.openstreetmap.org to learn more about it.

Whoever Holds the Maps, Holds the Future of Autonomous Cars

Digital maps are going to be fundamental to our next generation of cars.

Companies know this and are investing in creating their own mapping solutions to make their way into the future of the connected car.

Sure, there might be a while until we’ll see this technology on the road, although some specialists forecast that it might happen within the next couple of years.

One thing is for sure, though: The technology needed to power our next generation of cars is evolving fast. If you want to stay abreast all of the new and exciting developments taking place in the field, make sure to subscribe and also follow me on Twitter.