NVIDIA partners with ZENRIN to develop cloud-to-car mapping for self-driving cars

NVIDIA is collaborating with ZENRIN, the Japanese mapping company, to develop a cloud-to-car HD map solution for self-driving cars. ZENRIN has been focused for more than 60 years on creating maps of Japan. To reflect rapid change in the physical world, the company is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for keeping its maps current.

The collaboration encompasses processing both in the car, where the data is collected, and in the cloud:

 In the mapping-survey vehicle, the NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 AI car computer and NVIDIA DriveWorks software can process massive amounts of data generated by camera and lidar sensors. Deep learning will enable the real-time image recognition, feature detection and classification necessary to build detailed environment models.

 In the data centre, NVIDIA GPUs and NVIDIA MapWorks software can be used to process complex datasets, compile and register data from multiple vehicles, and create a 3D map.

“ZENRIN’s big data includes road images and point-cloud data captured by mapping-survey vehicles,” said Koji Haraguchi, Head of the Research and Development Office at ZENRIN. “Combining NVIDIA’s AI technologies and ZENRIN’s big data will enable us to provide wider coverage of HD maps to automotive manufacturers with a dramatically shorter lead time.”

“Using NVIDIA’s GPU technology, DriveWorks and MapWorks, ZENRIN will be able to accelerate the map creation process, and then easily detect changes when they occur,” said Rob Csongor, VP and GM, Automotive at NVIDIA.

NVIDIA is additionally developing localisation technology based on ZENRIN HD maps, which will become part of DriveWorks. This enables automakers using DRIVE PX 2 in the car to integrate localisation capabilities.

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