“Road mapping with EyeVi Technologies provides vital input to self-driving vehicles – GPS and street geo-coordinates, which are updated constantly, are combined to ensure that the vehicle actually navigates on the road. For example, where exactly the road verges, intersections, curbstones and lines are located,” Gaspar Anton, CEO of EyeVi Technologies, said.
According to the Baltic Course, the new technology combines a panoramic camera attached to the car, lidar or laser scanning device and artificial intelligence, and as a result, precise three-dimensional map applications are drawn up.
EyeVi – an effective way to map the need of road repairs
As self-driving traffic is still considered the economy of the future, currently able to offer a small amount of paying customers, EyeVi today focuses on inventorying road defects before repairs.
“Previously, for example, holes and cracks were detected with several cars and at a slow speed in the middle of traffic. With an EyeVi-equipped car, all measurements can be made at normal speed and efficiency is several times higher,” Marek Truu, head of the department for development and surveys at Teede Tehnokeskus, said.
The development and testing of the device were advised by the state-owned company Teede Tehnokeskus. Now, EyeVi Technologies and Teede Tehnokeskus have signed a partnership agreement, according to which EyeVi Technologies will continue product development and the measurement service will be provided by Teede Tehnokeskus.
Truu added that Teede Tehnokeskus currently uses EyeVi to inventory defects along 7,000 kilometers of Estonian state roads and, on the basis of that, provides the Road Administration with an overview of the condition of the roads and input for planning repairs. With the same technology, the center also collects data for several municipalities.
“In order to get an overview of the condition of the roads and to plan the necessary repairs most effectively, other local governments would need similar information,” Truu said, adding that Teede Tehnokeskus plans to start mapping roads also in Lithuania and Latvia.
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