Let’s take one rather large example. Ushr claims they are producing high definition maps of 125,000 miles of interstate in the U.S. and Canada for General Motors. These maps from a single source could be a tremendous example of collect once, use many. Ushr claims the mapping has been done to “under 10cm absolute accuracy.” They do not say whether that is vertical or horizontal, or with what statistical uncertainty.
Genesys builds HD maps. They are based in India. Genesys describes the HD map has having high-precision navigational geometry and 360-degree panoramic imagery leading to a unique “fingerprint” of every stretch of the road. That’s as close as they come to a specification.
In the old surveying days – steel tapes and plumb bobs, the saying used to be “close enough for highway work,” as compared to vertical building construction where tolerances were generally tighter. Well that is all changed in large part because of GNSS and the emergence of autonomous vehicles.
It would seem that ASTM, or SAE would be interested in working on a standard for the HD map. That way the autonomous vehicle industry would be able to rely on the data in the HD map to meet their navigational requirements. At the very least there should be a horizontal and vertical accuracy spec at 2 sigma.
What do you think?
