TomTom’s preparation for autonomous vehicle technology developments has moved a step further with the completion of mapping the US interstate road network.
Coverage of the company’s high definition (HD) map product now includes the entire mainland network, covering over 185,000km of interstates and highways across the country.
“It is a significant milestone to have completed the full interstate road network in the United States, which is crucial both strategically and commercially,” said Willem Strijbosch, head of autonomous driving at TomTom. “Combined with the great traction these products are receiving from our partners in the industry, and our recent acquisition of Autonomos, this is a further testimony of the scalability and efficiency of our approach to enabling autonomous driving.”
It means that TomTom’s global coverage has expanded to over 246,000km, including; 33,000km of motorways in France and 28,000km on the German Autobahn road network.
The expansion of road network coverage increases TomTom’s ability in the field of location technology research for the development of autonomous vehicles.
At the Geneva Motor Show, in Switzerland, earlier this month, the company announced its HD Maps are to be utilised in Volvo’s Drive Me project which sees an autonomous driving pilot with real people on real roads.
First taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden and due to start within the next few months, Volvo’s research project will integrate autonomous driving into the daily lives of members of the public.
The fleet of 100 hybrid-powered Volvo XC90 SUVs will drive on pre-selected routes around the Swedish capital, collecting hundreds of terrabytes of on-road data.
Further projects will later take place in London, UK and in China.
