Whoever Controls the Maps Controls the Future of the Autonomous Car

Whoever controls the maps, controls the future of the autonomous car.

I know it may come off as a strong statement.

But in this article, I’m going to give you plenty of arguments to help you get a better grasp of the essential role maps, and therefore mapping technology, play in the future of the autonomous car.

Here we go.

Maps Are How a Self-Driving Car Understands the Road

Maps shape the environment in a form that self-driving cars can understand.

A driverless car not only needs to know its position on the road with precision. It also needs a rich understanding of other elements on its way, react to the conditions of the road and anticipate them far beyond sensors’ horizons.

This is where maps prove their worth. Because while sensors, for instance, can already keep cars safely within their lanes, a fully autonomous vehicle needs to do better than this.

It needs to perform safely in all environments.

One of the reasons why high-definition maps are essential to self-driving cars is that it gives them the ability to anticipate turns and junctions in advance so that it can also adapt to them — something that wouldn’t be possible using sensors alone.

Sravan Puttagunta, Civil Maps CEO, explained it best here :

“Radar and cameras cannot always recognize a stop sign if pedestrians are standing in the way or the sign has been knocked down. But if the map knows there is a stop sign ahead, and the sensors just need to confirm it, the load on the sensors and processor is much lower.”

What It All Boils Down to? Data

In simple terms, a 3D map is an incredibly detailed three-dimensional image of a vehicle’s route.

And what makes maps so valuable is, of course, the data. Data is the new oil of tomorrow’s autonomous car, so whoever supplies the data has the upper hand.

However, collecting and supplying data is just part of the picture because it’s not only the volume of gathered information that matters, it’s also how that data is orchestrated — and how well the vehicle interacts with it.

Accuracy is the name of the game and data is the key to winning.

Autonomous cars are designed to operate unlike anything before them. Maps are used to guide the car when no driver is behind the wheel, so the data it relies on has to be incredibly precise.

Gigantic amounts of data need to be processed to pinpoint a car and its surroundings including street signs, traffic signals, potholes — and it all needs to be accurate right down to the centimeter.

To address this need for increased accuracy, today’s digital mapmakers such as HERE, TomTom International, DeepMap, Civil Maps, as well as companies supporting Open Data project OpenStreetMap, are employing a wide array of new concepts and technologies to generate maps which enable autonomous driving:

• High powered sensors and cloud storage
• Extraction technologies from 3D data stored in the cloud. The company HERE — as well as the applications OpenStreetCam and Mapillary — to name just a few — are using this to mark the drivable areas and create a border-to-border model of the road. This model includes lane markings such as road borders, center lines, and lane dividers.
• GPU (graphics processor unit) technology used for parallel processing which enables the connected car to simultaneously process multiple tasks with the purpose of running an operation in less time.
• Onboard real-time processing for continuous update on road conditions. Here’s how the process could go: a car sees something using its vehicle sensors data and compares it to the map that is uploaded to the cloud. If it spots a difference, the data is processed, and the result is a new map which takes into account the changes that occurred on the road. With that in mind, digital mapmakers are working on perfecting the technology to enable the car to process real-time cloud data about the road in conjunction with the one it receives from its sensors to make the best decisions.

Maps Make Cars More Reliable

It’s often been said that the real barriers to introducing self-driving vehicles onto the mass market are less technical and more human.

As humans, we have a strong instinct for survival, and being in an autonomous vehicle where we have to cease control can feel uncomfortable.

Maps can make driverless cars safer by making them more precise and more reliable.

As an example, maps can guide cars when the lane markings are covered by snow or in case a truck is blocking the car’s view of a traffic signal.

Looking at the bigger picture, this means that the coming generation of maps has the potential to make the cultural transition from regular vehicles to fully autonomous ones a lot easier.

The safer a system appears to be, the easier it is to be accepted by the masses.

Maps Are a Billion-Dollar Industry in the Making

Digital maps are already in-car navigation systems, helping drivers conveniently get to their destination by providing accurate, turn-by-turn driving directions.

But for self-driving cars, HD maps are more than just a convenience feature.

Simply put, a reality with autonomous vehicles on the road can’t exist without maps.

“If you have an autonomous car, then the map is not going to be an optional feature,” says John Ristevski, former VP of HERE.

“It’s going to be a core component of the vehicle that will produce ongoing revenue.”

This means that, in a scenario where driverless cars can operate everywhere, maps have the potential to generate billions of dollars.

The potential is there, so it’s no surprise that more and more companies are lining up to build the next generation of maps.

Google, Uber, Ford are just a few examples of companies working to gather data for HD maps using sensors mounted on their autonomous cars.

Other automakers have resorted to third-party services to get in on the race to power the future of the autonomous car.

Companies like NVIDIA, for instance, specialize in end-to-end mapping system for self-driving cars, designed to help automakers create high-definition maps and keep them updated.

Stay Abreast of New Developments Taking Place in the Autonomous Car Industry

As you’ve seen from this article, maps play a huge role in the autonomous driving puzzle, as they are essential to self-driving cars gaining real market acceptance.

Maps, at the center of which is data, are a prerequisite when it comes to enabling connected cars to perform safely and efficiently anytime, anywhere, and in any type of situations.

So, the competition for who can gather and supply the richest, most detailed data needed for the new era of self-driving cars is on.

The industry is changing rapidly, though, which means now is an exciting time for everyone interested in technological advancements related to driverless cars.

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