Zenzic, an organisation aiming to accelerate self-driving vehicle development in the UK, has released its latest report, which reveals the importance of geospatial mapping data sharing in getting connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) on UK roads by 2030.
The report, entitled ‘Geodata report – analysis and recommendations for self-driving vehicle testing Zenzic consultation findings’, aims to help the self-driving vehicle industry agree on defining how mapping data can be shared between companies and authorities, to speed up the development of safe self-driving vehicles, without hindering competition.
It shows that solving the current fragmentation of geospatial mapping data is vital in ensuring and enabling self-driving vehicles to be safely on the road both in the UK and globally.
The report offers initial steps towards creating a consensus on mapping requirements based on industry-wide feedback and recommendations across six key areas: data formats, data quality and resolution, terminology, minimum safe requirements and standards, government data and traffic regulation orders (TROs), and data hosting.
Daniel Ruiz, CEO, Zenzic, said: “This report shows that the global self-driving vehicle development industry agrees that mapping data needs to be easily shareable for us to achieve the goal of having self-driving vehicles on our streets by 2030.
“When it comes to the maps, which will form the basis of how self-driving vehicles see the world, the details matter, from how this data is shared, to what resolution of mapping data is deemed safe.
“The UK is well placed to lead the development of standards and regulation as organisations like OS and BSI have done some for decades.”
The findings are based on the input of organisations including Arcadis, Midlands Future Mobility, Warwick Manufacturing Group, Ordnance Survey and additional international partners.
Key insights include:
– Merging mapping data from regional sources (with over 200 local highway authorities in Great Britian alone) will require streamlining to avoid multiple different ways of processing and handling data.
– Mapping data quality, specifically accuracy and precision of such data, is seen to be more important than resolution.
– 10cm (with 5cm for lane boundary information) was posited as suitable resolution for AV systems that use HD maps and 2cm for those that do not.
– The connected and self-driving technology industries should follow the gaming, weather and building information modelling sectors when it comes to finding common terminology, in addition to working closely with BSI and the Open Geospatial Consortium.
– Currently both TN-ITS and ISO 20542 standards are widely used by equipment and vehicle manufacturers. Harmonisation between the two standards will take some time, so testing facilities must initially be able to accommodate both.
For the full details, download the report here.
Read more from CiTTi
https://www.cittimagazine.co.uk/self-driving-vehicles-will-need-better-maps/
https://www.cittimagazine.co.uk/cavs-key-to-uk-achieving-net-zero-2050-say-experts/
