Toyota to Use Cameras, GPS to Generate Navigation Data by 2020

CARS.COM — Toyota plans to allow cars to send real-time information to data-processing centers that will use it to improve maps for other cars, and it’s all in the name of autonomous driving.

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The automaker announced Dec. 22 that it plans to display its latest initiative at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 6-9. Toyota promises the technology, which will debut in production cars by 2020, can send onboard camera and GPS information through the cloud to data centers that patch it together for better navigation data.

Here’s why. Toyota reckons that self-driving technology requires a better understanding of road signs, markings and layouts. Outfitted with cameras and positioning systems, other cars on the road can provide such data en masse. Toyota says that’s a big difference from today, where map data for self-driving cars requires sending out vehicles outfitted with three-dimensional laser scanners to create environmental imaging that’s manually corrected on the back end. That’s as slow and complicated as it sounds, and as a result maps are rarely updated.

With “designated user vehicles,” Toyota aims to simplify the whole process. Cameras and GPS data aren’t as accurate as laser scanners, but there are a lot more of them — and with enough cars transmitting information, Toyota can match up enough images to triangulate what’s really out there. The automaker claims the technology will have real-time updates and a margin of error of just 2 inches.