HD Maps for Self-Driving Cars
<p>Regular maps are not sufficient for autonomous vehicles. They don’t have information about traffic lanes, traffic signs, and lights, position, and height of the curbs. Also, they are useless for localization purposes. They are designed for humans, not for machines. These maps can have location errors up to a few meters.</p>
<p>HD maps (high definition maps) are essential for self-driving cars. They have a high accuracy of object locations, up to 10 cm.</p>
<p>Self-driving cars use HD maps for multiple purposes. It helps to solve the localization problem: figuring out where exactly the car is in the world. GPS can have errors up to a few meters, which is an unacceptable accuracy for driving. With an HD map, the localization software can compare features of surroundings with the map and figure out where exactly it is located.</p>
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