Hamburg/Germany, Shanghai/China, June 2019 – Hamburg-based LiDAR sensor specialist Ibeo Automotive Systems joins forces with NavInfo, China’s largest digital map manufacturer and telematics provider. The cooperation enables high-precision vehicle localisation and consistently up-to-date HD maps for NavInfo. Ibeo – a global leader in technology for LiDAR sensors in the automotive sector – provides reliable detection of obstacles and pedestrians, ensuring that autonomous vehicles can respond in good time using its state-of-the-art measurement and sensor technology. The latest Ibeo development is a solid state LiDAR with 4D environment imaging. 

To ensure the validity and liability of “LiDAR + HD map” , Beijing LiangDao Intelligent Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. (LiangDao Intelligence) will take part in several joint researches and developments, providing system integration as well as automatic testing & validation service for the cooperation. The cooperation between NavInfo, Ibeo and LiangDao was announced by all three parties today at CES Shanghai.

If a vehicle is to navigate autonomously without human intervention, two essential features are required: sound measurement technology, such as LiDAR sensors or cameras, and high-resolution road maps (HD maps). In conjunction with sensors, this makes it possible for autonomously-driven vehicles to pinpoint their exact location on the maps and thus in their surroundings. As a result of the cooperation between the map manufacturer NavInfo and Ibeo Automotive, updating the map material will be faster in the future: The Ibeo LiDAR sensors compare NavInfo’s maps with the real environment and transmit in near real-time any changes in the environment on the map to the map manufacturer. Thus, the maps are updated continuously and with high precision.
Currently HD maps are in a critical period of development, which puts forward higher requirements for HD map`s production and service. As a leading HD map service provider in China, NavInfo focuses on mass production of HD map products. By using multiple collection methods, automation platform, and real-time compilation & publishing platform, NavInfo has set up a platform to provide real-time HD maps with high reliability for guaranteeing safety of autonomous driving. The cooperation with Ibeo will accelerate the mass production of HD map of NavInfo, and escort the safety of autonomous driving.

NavInfo CEO Patrick Cheng said, "NavInfo expects to play the role of a reliable infrastructure provider and builder in the era of Autonomous Driving with its high quality of HD map products, together with partners to bring safer solutions for the industry, jointly to promote development of autonomous driving."
“Accurate HD maps are indispensable for self-driving vehicles,” explains Dr. Ulrich Lages, CEO of Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH. “Thanks to the cooperation between NavInfo, Ibeo Automotive and LiangDao, autonomous cars can localize themselves more precisely than ever before. Using this precision data, we can ensure greater safety for autonomous road traffic.”

ibeoNEXT 4D ensures flawless maps

Ibeo has developed a sensor system that is unique in the industry. The solid state technology of the ibeoNEXT LiDAR scores with a long range and high spatial resolution: This produces a highly accurate 3D model of the environment: In addition to information about the course of the road, detailed information about road equipment and traffic-relevant objects such as road signs and traffic lights is also transmitted. Changes in the course of the road are thus registered faster and more accurately and transmitted to the map manufacturer. Ongoing matching of the scanned real environment together with the available HD maps create a continuously up-to-date data pool that benefits every user while its users simultaneously expand this data pool. The Hamburg-based LiDAR manufacturer chose NavInfo because autonomous driving is already highly advanced in China.

Before vehicle sensors are introduced into vehicle series production, extensive testing must be carried out to ensure that the environmental data is correctly recorded by the sensor. LiangDao Intelligence, a company with which Ibeo has been cooperating on the Chinese market since 2018, handles the entire test procedure, also known as validation.

LiangDao Intelligence CEO Dr. Xueming Ju says that in this cooperation, the company will fully take advantage of the testing & validation technologies and help the application of “LiDAR + HD map” achieve mass production requirements by the means of providing highly-qualified Groud Truth, automatic tool chains, big data mining abilities and etc.

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