The future of in-car maps goes way beyond directions. The European PReVENT road safety initiative, with a budget of €50 million and 56 partners, has developed a system to read navigation maps and warn the driver of upcoming hazards. The system alerts the driver to upcoming sharp bends, dips and accident-prone spots and links to the systems in other vehicles around it.
The component of the PReVENT research that studies map information and compares it to the real-time environment is MAPS&ADAS. The system goes beyond analyzing its surroundings, to actually updating the map database if it finds that features are lacking. Ultimately, the system would constantly update existing maps, but in order to do so it would require a sensor web of transmitters in the streetscape. The transmitters are needed to communicate real-time conditions with the vehicle sensors so that on-board systems can ingest and update their data based on comparisons of what the local sensors know.
Read the release from ICT Results for more information on this research.
