RE: Toyota27 Jun 2019 10:26
The first is the measurement of 29,205 kilometers of road. Above all, these are highways on which Japan's carmakers first want to introduce autonomous driving. This work was completed in March 2019. The first commercial user is Renault's partner Nissan. He announced in mid-May to use the maps as the basis for his driving assistant ProPilot 2.0.
Second, DMP should expand globally. Earlier this year, INCJ's € 150 million and Mitsubishi Electric and the Japan Infrastructure Investment Company, founded by Hitachi and Megabank MUFG, shot up an undisclosed amount. With the money DMP then bought the American card startup Ushr.
The purchase goes very well with the actual goal, explained Mitsubishi Electrics boss Takeshi Sugiyama at that time. Creating a global map standard for autonomous cars "is a very important part of our strategy."
Mitsubishi Electric is also already exporting parts of the developed technology to the world. For example, in 2017, the Group founded the Sapcorda Services GmbH with Bosch, Geo ++ and u-blox, which aims to bring centimeter-accurate satellite positioning to Germany.
But this is not the only Japanese map initiative with global ambitions. Toyota's $ 2.8 billion capitalized startup TRI-AD (Toyota Research Institute's Advanced Development) aims to develop not only artificial intelligence for autonomous cars, but also a smart open source road map platform, with the automakers providing maps through their camera and sensor data Cars themselves to keep up to date.
Ambitious goals
The man in charge is Mandali Khalesi, who used to work for TomTom and Nokia Here in Asia. He is pursuing an ambitious goal: "We want to enable automatic map making for all, including in developing countries and in the countryside."
The project will gain even more momentum through the construction of 5G networks. The mobile network company Softbank, which belongs to the universe of the global technology investor Softbank, will expand the centimeter-accurate satellite positioning in many parts of the country. The aim is for mobile operators to offer high-precision positioning even where DMP will never get there: on fields, construction sites and in factories.
But the mobile network also works on solutions for the street. In June, the company demonstrated on a 14-kilometer section of highway in Japan, as trucks coupled automatically via the 5G network in close column drive. There is still a driver in the first truck. But if the legal situation allows, it can be replaced. The map data for the control of cars already exist.
In addition, there are several other initiatives that Japan's manufacturers want to make it difficult for Google and other competitors to access the driving data of their cars. Toyota, for example, has initiated the consortium Automotive Grade Linux, which is to develop a kind of operating system including infotainment and digital speedometer for the car. Recently, VW also joined the project after Daimler.
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