When activated, DRIVE PILOT controls the vehicle’s speed as well as the distance to the vehicle ahead and guides a car safely within its lane without any intervention from the driver. The highly precise, cloud-based HERE HD Live Map plays a critical role in its technology by providing the system with detailed data about the three-dimensional road network. In combination with the input from the vehicle sensors the map data is used by the DRIVE PILOT to maneuver a vehicle on the public road network.

The HERE HD Live Map consists of multiple layers providing information for a car to know where exactly it is and what lies ahead. For example, it can enable a vehicle to proactively adjust to changing road conditions like adjusting its speed ahead of an upcoming lane closure. This is possible through HERE’s advanced mapping technology that provides both the accuracy as well as the freshness of its HD Live Map. 

Mercedes-Benz plans to make DRIVE PILOT first available in its new S-Class in the fourth quarter of this year. Initially, it will be able to drive in conditionally automated mode at legally permitted speeds of up to 60 km/h in heavy traffic or congested situations on suitable sections of motorways in Germany. Over time, the system will be integrated into additional Mercedes-Benz models and expanded to cover suitable sections of motorways in further regions.

Complementing existing perception-based Level 2+ autonomy platforms, DeepMap HDR registers and aligns myriad crowd-sourced perception outputs to generate and update live, high-fidelity maps with absolute accuracy and better relative accuracy.

The announcement was made on the opening day of the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference (GTC), where DeepMap Co-Founder and CTO Mark Wheeler is presenting on “Future-Proof Mapping for Level 2+ Autonomy and Beyond.” The on-demand session (A21158) will be available on the GTC website on October 5 at 9am PDT, following NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote.

Safe automated driving is not always possible during periods of adverse weather, in tunnels, and in changing environments, such as during roadworks. RoadCheck enables carmakers to use TomTom’s high definition (HD) map data to define the operational design domain (ODD) of their vehicles’ automated driving functions. This makes it possible for carmakers to manage where these functions can be used safely.

TomTom’s vehicle automation portfolio now features: the TomTom HD Map, the TomTom ADAS Map, a hazard service, TomTom AutoStream, TomTom Vehicle Horizon and TomTom RoadCheck.

It’s a straightforward process: Ford uses the HERE Workspace to create, develop and scale location-centric data sets and services in one secure environment. The Workspace provides access to HERE map content, dynamic data such as traffic and weather, Location Services and location algorithms such as map-matching, along with comprehensive developer, visualization and analytics tools to power location-based solution development and operation.  

All of the content and tools enable Ford to create their own reliable map. This customized map is a key input into the vehicle via the Ford cloud to determine whether or not hands-free driving is available. Active Drive Assist then fuses the map with local sensing to provide hands-free driving when conditions are appropriate. The driver is still able to take control of the vehicle at any time, and they must keep their attention on the roadway.

HERE welcomes MC and NTT as strategic investors. The two companies have co-invested in HERE via their recently established, jointly owned holding company COCO Tech Holding B.V. in the Netherlands. As a result, HERE now has nine direct and indirect shareholders: Audi, Bosch, BMW Group, Continental, Intel Capital, MC, Mercedes-Benz, NTT and Pioneer.?

Following the transaction, HERE has added two new members to its Supervisory Board: Mr. Yutaka Kyoya, Executive Vice President, Group CEO, Consumer Industry Group, Mitsubishi Corporation; and Mr. Hiroki Kuriyama, Member of the Board, Executive Vice President, Head of Strategic Business Development, NTT.

HERE’s broadened shareholder structure supports the company’s ambitions to accelerate growth in new industries and markets. In particular, with new Japanese investors, HERE will have a springboard to further accelerate growth in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to today’s announcement, HERE and MC have already been working as strategic partners in several areas, including middle and last-mile logistics, tackling urban traffic congestion, and location-based advertising.

Imagry, an autonomous vehicle software developer with a pioneering mapless driving platform, announced it has partnered with AutonomouStuff for inclusion in its leading portfolio of autonomy-enabling technologies for worldwide resale. AutonomouStuff customers seeking to avoid the extreme limitations of HD Mapping can now capitalize on the efficiency, scalability and reliability of Imagry’s mapless technology when developing and deploying their own autonomous solutions.

Mapless vs. HD Mapping Technology

There are two types of approaches for developing autonomous vehicle technology: HD mapping and mapless. HD mapping is the most common approach, but with its reliance on pre-built maps, it is hindering the mass deployment of autonomous vehicles. Imagry’s mapless technology doesn’t require a pre-built map to function. Instead, it uses a vision-based approach to “see” the world in front of it. It’s essentially generating realizations of the car’s surroundings in real time, allowing the vehicle to quickly adapt to its environment.

Collaboration and inclusion of world-class suppliers is the best approach to developing a safe, cost-efficient, and fast-to-market solution for autonomous driving. AutonomouStuff’s ability to offer leading R&D platforms, products, software and engineering services are critical for the go-to-market strategy of Imagry to reach multiple autonomous solution developers quickly. Imagry’s mapless approach fundamentally transforms autonomous mobility by pushing the limits of computer vision and artificial intelligence. A key role for AutonomouStuff will be the integration of Imagry’s mapless software into autonomous driving architectures.

Demand for high-accuracy and high-quality HD maps for automated driving has been growing with the increased use of automated driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). It is essential for map building to capture changes in roadway attributes accurately and quickly, and update the maps with high efficiency. The conventional approach detects lane-level changes through on-site surveys using expensive survey vehicles and typically based on planned road construction notices. In this PoC, TRI-AD’s image recognition technology automatically detects changes based on image data collected by commonly available cameras. By helping focus the survey fleet only on areas of change as they occur, it is expected to demonstrate a significant reduction in the cost of operating the fleet and an acceleration of the map update to users including automotive manufacturers.

TRI-AD and DMP will demonstrate the ability to update DMP’s HD maps with an improved efficiency using the automatic change detection technology by TRI-AD’s AMP based on images and other data of roadways in Japan. Aiming to start operation from fiscal year 2021, this PoC will study methods to further improve the frequency of HD map updates, and consider the use of AMP to update map data by Ushr, Inc. (a DMP Group company) that supplies its HD maps in North America.

EMG will support Ford’s Connected Blue Zone (hereinafter referred to as CBZ) autonomous driving project. The CBZ is the first autonomous driving commercial project of Ford in China. It is SAE-Level 2.5+, allowing autonomous driving on the highway. The project is expected to be launched in 2021. EMG will not only provide HD seed map for CBZ, but also provide online incremental data updates through OTA technology, providing real-time mapping technology and strong support for the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system, CBZ Blue Line retention system, driver attention retention system, etc. EMG helps to make it possible for drivers to free their hands when driving on the highway.

HERE Lanes feeds ADAS and mobile applications with precise lane topology, geometry and attribute data, such as the rules of the road, vehicle height restrictions, lane count and centerline, direction of travel, and the slope and curvature of intersections.

Live tests conducted by VSI Labs show how HERE lane-level data and vehicle sensors work in tandem to increase the performance and safety of ADAS features. For example, HERE Lanes improves the functioning of ADAS Lane Keep Assist when lane lines merge onto highways or intersections, or when optical sensors onboard have limited visibility due to fog, rain or snow.

Turning smartphones into safety sensors

HERE Lanes is complimented by the recent launch of HERE Live Sense SDK, which enables apps and devices to detect hazards in real-time to help drivers make informed decisions. Through the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, HERE Live Sense SDK turns devices with front-facing cameras, such as smartphones, dashcams or vehicle cameras, into highly intelligent vehicle sensors. By continuously scanning the driver’s environment, devices can then detect objects on the road, such as other vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists, road infrastructure such as traffic lights and road signs and potential hazards such as potholes, road closures or construction zones and notify the driver with audible and visual alerts, so they can take action.

HERE Lanes is a part of the company’s portfolio of automotive solutions to support all levels of vehicle automation.

• The interior monitoring system detects driver drowsiness and distraction, andprovides driving assistance
• Harald Kroeger: “Bosch is using cameras and AI to turn the vehicle into a life-saver.”
• Bosch is developing a new car-driver symbiosis for automated driving
• Over the next 20 years or so, new safety technology that e.g. warns drivers about drowsiness and distraction is expected to save 25,000 lives in the EU

Microsleep, distraction, a seatbelt left undone – many things that happen inside a vehicle can have far-reaching consequences. To avert critical driving situations and possibly also accidents, it is planned that cars will in the future use their sensors not simply to monitor the road but also the driver and other passengers. For this purpose, Bosch has developed a new interior monitoring system featuring cameras and artificial intelligence (AI). The Bosch system may go into production in 2022. In that year, the EU will make safety technology that for example warns drivers of drowsiness and distraction a standard feature in new vehicles. The EU Commission expects that, by 2038, their new safety requirements for vehicles will save more than 25,000 lives and help prevent at least 140,000 severe injuries. By keeping an eye on what is happening inside the car, it is hoped that a fundamental problem of self-driving cars will be solved. If responsibility for driving is to be transferred to the driver again following an automated drive on the freeway, say, the car needs to be sure that the driver is neither sleeping, nor reading the newspaper, nor writing e-mails on their smartphone.

The 5GAA helps to define and develop the next generation of connected mobility and automated vehicle solutions. Established in September 2016, 5GAA unites an ever-growing member base currently at 134 members, including eight founding companies: AUDI AG, BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm Incorporated.

Both HERE and 5GAA align on a vision to build the future of connected mobility. Vehicles’ ability to share information via wireless technology will make transportation more efficient, sustainable and safer. The 5GAA supports the idea that 5G will be best able to carry out critical communications for safer driving, support enhanced V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communications and connected mobility solutions. As a pioneer in digital mapping and in-car navigation systems, HERE provides the location intelligence, data and services necessary for automated and autonomous driving.

Academy of Robotics and Eurovia UK announced plans for a national partnership to trial the use of Kar-go’s autonomous vehicle technology to support urban and rural highway management and to accelerate the “training” of Kar-go to navigate on unmarked roads in the UK.

Academy of Robotics is the startup behind Kar-go, Europe’s first road-based autonomous delivery vehicle. Originally developed to dramatically reduce both the financial and environmental costs of last-mile parcel delivery, Eurovia UK recognised its potential for use in infrastructure and urban development work and is keen to test the Kar-go technology to automate the delivery of small plant equipment, tools, materials and other components to and from a highway work site as well as the potential use of data collected by Kar-go as it travels, to determine the condition of roads.

Eurovia UK, a leading specialist in operating, maintaining and improving road, highway and public realm infrastructure will help Academy of Robotics to scale their training of autonomous vehicles. This will be enabled by accessing digital camera data gathered by Eurovia’s fleet in the UK, which covers over 50,000 kms of UK roads.

The trial will initially focus on the UK, but as a global business operating in 15 countries, the deal offers significant potential for international expansion in Europe and North America.

Understanding hazards – shadows vs. potholes
Through their unique approach to colour perception, Academy of Robotics have been able to address the challenge of environmental variability and ‘noise’ caused by shadows and bright reflections meaning that Kar-go’s operating system is already able to understand the difference between features such as cracks, puddles, potholes and shadows.

Through the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), HERE Live Sense SDK turns devices with front-facing cameras, such as smartphones, dashcams or vehicle cameras, into highly intelligent vehicle sensors. By continuously scanning the driver’s environment, devices can then detect objects on the road, such as other vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists, road infrastructures such as traffic lights and road signs and potential hazards such as potholes, road closures or construction zones.

Based on what has been detected ahead, HERE Live Sense SDK provides information through both audio and visual notifications, which will help the driver make an informed decision of which action needs to be taken next. All of this happens in real-time on the device itself, without the need for data processing in the cloud or for connectivity. HERE Live Sense SDK also has the ability to detect changes in reality versus the onboard map to keep drivers informed of a change in the speed limit, for example.

HERE Live Sense SDK uses multiple AI/ML detection models, including:

• Road Basics: Detection and classification of objects on the road.
• Road Alerts: Recognition and notification of braking vehicles, pedestrians and bicycle detection.
• Road Hazards: Detection and classification of unexpected hazards along the way, with changing conditions, including road closures not yet detected on the map, construction zones and road works.
• Road Signs: Detection and classification of speed limits and other signs.

As an SDK, these models can be implemented into an application or hardware device, providing customers with AI capabilities. The HERE Live Sense SDK has been created to benefit all drivers and is available for automotive & HW OEMs, fleet and ride-hail operators and app developers. It is now available in beta for Android and will soon be available for iOS. In addition, HERE is already working with customers on the first commercial implementations of the SDK.

Working together to make driving safer for all road users is at the heart of the DTF’s work. Founded in 2017, the DTF supports the implementation of existing EU laws on access to safety services. By boosting access to safety data and enabling collaboration between vehicle manufacturers and countries, the DTF aims to enhance traffic safety for all road users. 

The Data for Road Safety initiative involves pooling safety-related data from multiple sources, including road infrastructure and different brands of vehicles, and making it accessible to all project partners. The year-long trial will see participating organizations explore the different aspects involved in running such a data ecosystem.

To support the trials, Northumbrian Water Group has become the first utility company in the U.K. to join the project. The new service from Mobileye and OS, which will deliver high-precision roadside asset location data to companies across multiple sectors. The collaboration will unlock the innovation of artificial intelligence-powered automotive technology for an array of markets.

Fleets of vans and cars fitted with Mobileye’s automotive camera-based mapping technology are set to capture a street-level (worms-eye) view of the nation’s road network. Retrofitted with the Mobileye 8 Connect, the vehicles are detecting, processing and sending data to the cloud for aggregation before the information is provided to OS. OS, a world-leading geospatial data and technology organization, cross-references the data with its existing datasets. The level of detail recognized and classified includes road markings, network boxes, traffic lights, road signs, lamp and telegraph posts, bollards, manhole covers, and drainage grates. The data is updated constantly as vehicles capture information on the roads they travel.

Initially tested in selected areas of the country, the trials included London, Manchester and the North East. The trials are already helping produce a dataset of Britain’s road network characteristics and street furniture at an unprecedented level of accuracy. The trials will lay the groundwork for new data and infrastructure asset monitoring services from Mobileye and OS for customers across many markets, ranging from the energy and infrastructure sectors to emerging tech markets including connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) and 5G.

Designated as Korea’s first free economic zone, IFEZ consists of Songdo, Yeongjong and Cheongna International Cities with a total size of 132.9 km².

SK Telecom will create an HD map covering the entire IFEZ area starting with Songdo International City. An HD map is a machine-readable map with centimeter-level accuracy, offering essential information for self-driving, including lanes, road conditions, speed limits and road slopes. Thus, it is regarded as a key element for achieving Level 4 of autonomy for autonomous vehicles as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers.

The HD map will be built with ‘Dynamic Data Platform,’ a 5G-based real-time update solution for HD maps. Dynamic Data Platform automatically updates HD maps upon receiving road observation data from Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) over 5G network. SK Telecom plans to install ADAS and 5G communication modules to public transport vehicles and official/government cars in the IFEZ area to detect all changes in the road environment.

Moreover, SK Telecom and the IFEZ Authority will build a data hub to systematically manage and analyze data of the floating population to enhance the convenience and safety of citizens through smarter transportation policies.

According to TRI-AD analysis, currently HD maps cover less than 1% of the global road network, and there is a need to increase the coverage of urban areas and local roads before autonomous vehicles can become a mainstream mobility technology. An HD map created from accurate satellite imagery allows the driving software to compare multiple data sources and signal the car to take action if needed to stay safe.

Leveraging Maxar’s cloud-based Geospatial Big Data platform (GBDX), imagery from Maxar’s optical satellite image library will be fed into NTT DATA’s specialized algorithms using Artificial Intelligence to extract information that is necessary to generate the detailed road network. Based on the above information, TRI-AD will make HD maps available for delivery from TRI-AD’s cloud into Toyota test vehicles.

The group is focusing first on creating an automated HD map for a predefined area of the Tokyo metropolitan region, opening up the future possibility of supporting automated mobility on all roads.

It will provide powerful technical support for industry developers and partners to develop autonomous driving, and also promote commercial application of automatic driving in various scenarios.

The new resource-efficient product, which is part of the company’s industry leading Over-The-Air (OTA) solution, resolves major challenges Smart Delta for Maps face currently – limited size updates, and difficulties in updating over intermittent LTE or Wi-Fi Coverage. HARMAN’s new solution can reduce the size of a map update to as low as 2.5% of the original size of the full map image in a failsafe and secure manner. HARMAN has re-engineered the update process, which typically take days, to occur near real-time with this new product.

HARMAN Remote Vehicle Updating Service (OTA) with the new Smart Delta for Maps product are designed to provide a reliable and superior user experience through the following features:

• New, built-in Smart Delta technology
• Support of various maps based on Navigation Data Standard (NDS)
• Advance connected urban driving with efficient Point of Interest (PoI) updates
• Update only new data within the layer(s) of a map