Toyota is hoping to use the results to shorten the delay in updating HD maps for AVs, expand map coverage and reduce maintenance costs.
The company collaborated with space infrastructure company Maxar Technologies and IT services provider NTT Data to build the maps using commercial satellite imagery.
The demonstration allowed the partners to automatically extract the required map information by analysing, removing and correcting non-map image pixels such as cars and shadows due to the inclination of buildings in satellite imagery. Maps were created within the 23 wards of Tokyo as well as six unnamed cities in the US and Europe.
A collaboration with road intelligence firm Carmera showcased how to make maps using consumer-grade vehicle cameras. Both parties used dashcam drive recorders to detect and place road features such as lane markings, traffic signals and signs within the 23 wards of Tokyo and two unnamed cities in the US state of Michigan.
In a separate initiative, Toyota showed how lane markings necessary for AVs could be updated in near real-time on TomTom's HD map. This was achieved by converting vehicle data into TomTom's cloud-based transactional mapmaking platform, Toyota says.
Additionally, Toyota worked with Here Technologies to correct the positional errors in its vehicle data. Here created surface road maps and ingested data into its platform and automatically generated HD maps including lane level information, the company adds.
