Volkswagen is to integrate camera-based map and localisation technology from Mobileye into future vehicles under a new deal that will help develop autonomous driving solutions.

Prof. Amnon Shashua (Chairman Mobileye) and Dr. Herbert Diess (Chairman Volkswagen brand)

Mobileye’s Road Experience Management (REM) solution uses crowd-sourced real-time data for precise localisation and acquisition of high-definition track data.

The partnership will see Volkswagen cars, which are equipped with front cameras, acquire lane markings and road information via optical sensor systems from Mobileye, with the fleet data to be used for continuous improvement of high-definition navigation maps with highly precise localisation capability. These will be used as a foundation for autonomous driving and advanced development of many assistance systems.

“The future of autonomous driving depends on the ability to create and maintain precise high-definition maps and scale them at minimal cost,” said Professor Amnon Shashua, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Mobileye.

“The Volkswagen agreement is a turning point. It not only utilises crowd-sourcing technology to automatically generate high-definition maps and scale them cost-effectively. A much more important aspect is that the agreement provides a framework for industry-wide cooperation between automobile manufacturers to jointly produce the map contents that are needed for autonomous driving.”

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