Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development Inc. (TRI-AD) and Carmera Inc. have announced that they will collaborate to conduct a proof of concept surrounding the development of camera-based automation of high definition (HD) maps for urban and surface roads.

According to the companies, this is the first step towards realizing TRI-AD's open software platform concept known as Automated Mapping Platform (AMP), which will support the scalability of highly automated driving by combining data gathered from vehicles of participating companies to generate HD maps.

“Currently automated driving map development relies on highly expensive specialized mapping vehicles deployed in limited numbers, and a lengthy manual process for reliable HD map creation,” explains Mandali Khalesi, vice president Automated Driving at TRI-AD.

“We're excited to partner with CARMERA to automate HD map generation and help enable automated driving mobility for all.”

During this proof of concept, TRI-AD and Carmera will place cameras in Toyota test vehicles to collect data from areas of downtown Tokyo over several months.

The cameras installed in the test vehicles use Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) components, which Toyota installs on its vehicles across the world. Carmera’s real-time platform will be used to process images and other data gathered from TSS to automatically generate HD map data.

The companies say that the project will also demonstrate automated map generation from a wider range of sources that do not have TSS, by placing commercially available "dashcam" drive recorders in Toyota test vehicles.

This draws upon Carmera’s millions of miles of driving video collected, which are a result of safety monitoring partnerships with professional fleets in other difficult environments such as New York City.

TRI-AD and Carmera note that by combining maps automatically generated using the techniques utilized in this project with digital maps available today, more reliable road information can be provided to automated vehicles in the future. They also say that “automated driving can be enabled on all roads” by generating HD maps based on data acquired from commercially available vehicles around the world.