Autonomous car sensor technology. Photo: Frank Derks, Flickr

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), Toyota’s automated driving software development company, Maxar Technologies, and NTT DATA will collaborate on a proof of concept to build automated High-Definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles using high-resolution satellite imagery. This aims to advance TRI-AD’s open software platform concept known as Automated Mapping Platform (AMP), and help realize the scalability of autonomous driving.

In this proof of concept, the three companies will work together to process satellite imagery into vehicle-friendly HD maps. 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.

“Recent advances in electronics and aerospace engineering are leading to higher resolutions and more frequent updates of global imagery from space-based assets,” said Mandali Khalesi, Vice President Automated Driving at TRI-AD. “Additionally, machine learning is helping automate the discovery and integration of semantic relationships between road elements within image data. We’re excited to collaborate with Maxar and NTT DATA to revolutionize automated driving mobility for all.”