HD Maps for Autonomous Driving

Business challenge

Starting in 2018, our client, a global leader in navigation and location-based solutions, began streamlining their forward-looking portfolio towards fully automated driving. As a proven and trusted partner for many years, Intellias was selected to aid in the implementation of key services that will drive the future of the autonomous world. One of these services was HD maps for autonomous driving in the European and Asia-Pacific regions.

The challenge of this project was to build a future-proof road network of HD maps for autonomous driving, enabling vehicles to understand the world through an immensely detailed and dynamic map for autonomous driving.

HD maps autonomous driving solution delivered

The project started with an operational review by our client of our processes, systems, and expertise. During a visit to the Intellias headquarters, our client inspected how successful we are at running the development of 2D NDS-compliant maps and related functionality. As a result of a successful audit, our client selected us to lead the R&D project to develop an algorithm for precise route building and map overlays. The challenge our team faced stemmed from our client’s ambitious goal. Implementing an algorithm that can map out a route for a fully automated vehicle requires in-depth technical expertise accompanied with a unique state-of-the-art approach.

In half a year, we delivered a reliable algorithm for autonomous driving maps. It enables both highly and fully automated driving experiences by providing accurate route planning based on lane-level information, speed data, and real-time information about the situation on the road.

Having proven our ability to operate at the cutting edge of technology, we were also asked to participate in the full cycle development of 3D maps, from eliciting source data to creating and publishing the autonomous driving maps themselves.

• Our HAD Content Pipeline team is completely responsible for collecting both static and dynamic data, including data from a vehicle’s onboard sensors, and compiling information-rich HD maps for autonomous driving that are crucial for the functionality of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) such as adaptive cruise control.
• The Publication team is in charge of tuning the collected data to meet the requirements of every carmaker and deliver tailored datasets that carefully match a carmaker’s needs.
• The Fully Automated Driving team acquired full ownership of the leading-edge project, driving the development of data-rich autonomous driving maps for a fully automated taxi service.

Business outcome

Intellias put the greatest effort into aiding our client in implementing their ambitious project and bringing to reality HD maps autonomous driving systems that provide vehicles with detailed and dynamic information about the road network. Our client was the first to offer broad HD map coverage of most European and Asia-Pacific countries. Their autonomous driving maps coverage exceeds 1 million kilometers of road networks. Intellias HD maps for autonomous driving offerings enable automakers around the globe to introduce both highly and fully automated driving functionality.

In just two years, Intellias:

• developed a real-time streaming perception stack suitable for generating HD map observations based on sensor systems
• created and maintained 3D maps that enable precise positioning for lateral and longitudinal control of vehicles on the road
• delivered HD maps to customers online as a geographically tiled and functionally layered data service suitable for direct-to-car and OEM cloud consumption.