Mapping for Autonomous Driving: Opportunities and Challenges

This article provides a review of the production and uses of maps for autonomous driving and a synthesis of the opportunities and challenges. For many years, maps have helped human drivers make better decisions, and in the future, maps will continue to play a critical role in enabling safe and successful autonomous driving. There are, however, many technical, societal, economic, and political challenges to mapping that remain unresolved. While fully autonomous driving may be some distance in the future, intermediate steps to realize the technology can be taken. These include developing an efficient and reliable storage and dissemination infrastructure, defining minimum data quality requirements, and establishing an international mapping standard. The article closes with 11 open research challenges for mapping for autonomous driving.

Automated summary

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the production and usage of maps for autonomous driving, highlighting the critical role maps play in enabling safe and successful autonomous driving. While there are various challenges in mapping that need to be addressed, steps like developing efficient infrastructure, setting minimum data quality requirements, and establishing international mapping standards can help move towards realizing autonomous driving technology. The article concludes with 11 open research challenges for the field.