BMW, Nissan, VW Launch Mobileye Mapping Initiative

This year BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen will begin using the input from cameras in more than 2 million of their vehicles to generate ultra-precise road maps for self-driving cars.

The project is headed by Intel Corp.’s recently acquired Mobileye unit. Data from the crowdsourced cameras will be collected and processed by Mobileye’s Road Experience Management technology. REM can compress the output of a car’s camera to a tiny 10 kilobytes per kilometer of travel.

By combining real-time observations of roadways, REM can provide vehicles with up-to-the-minute details about lane closures or obstructions, crash scenes, construction projects and other traffic issues that affect travel.​​​​​

Separately, Mobileye has signed a similar deal with Beijing-based mapping service Navinfo Co. Ltd. Navinfo will feed crowdsource input from REM through its RoadBook platform to update its own precision mapping and location products.