As fully-autonomous vehicles come closer to being a reality, Nokia is working to build a comprehensive set of 3-D maps that could guide self-driving cars along the roadway.
HERE, the mapping division of Nokia, has sent out 200 vehicles in the last 18 months armed with high-resolution cameras, lasers and GPS receivers to collect 3-D data on roadways in cities around the world; the yaw, pitch and roll of the vehicle are even tracked.
To date, the fleet has mapped more than 1 million miles of roadway in 30 countries on six continents. Once the data is collected, it is sent through several technical centers to be checked for errors and then inserted into a global map database. The idea is that autonomous vehicles could employ these 3-D maps to identify routes and recognize potential obstacles and other elements of the roadways around them. HERE claims that its maps are accurate to within 8 in.
The concept is similar to Google Maps, but HERE is collaborating directly with auto manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, with whom it conducted a demonstration in 2013. Mercedes successfully sent an autonomous S500 sedan 62 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, using a route mapped out by a HERE vehicle.
