Accurate Maps The Key To Autonomous Success: Honda, Toyota

Research and development boffins at Honda and Toyota say accurate mapping is a key ingredient to the future success of self-driven cars.

Honda of America’s Jim Keller believes cars of the not-too-distant future could be sharing instant updates on driving conditions to a central ‘cloud’, accessible to all carmakers.

Information on congestion, detours, collisions and more would then be instantly updated to the on-board mapping systems of other cars, giving vehicles a better chance of operating fully-autonomously.

"Mapping is going to be critical in the future - it's almost a symbiotic relationship between the auto companies and what we need and what we're asking from the maps,” Mr Keller said, speaking with industry paper Automotive News.

"Symbiotic means that we're also going to be feeding the map makers with updated data and then using that same information to help us. It's really a paradigm shift happening as we move forward related to mapping."

Map-sharing between vehicles may help to overcome problems currently experienced by satellite-based navigation systems in inner-city streets surrounded by high-rise buildings; but only if the updated map data doesn’t also arrive via satellite.

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