A consortium of 15 Japanese automakers and manufacturers that make components and systems for cars—including Toyota, Honda and Nissan, as well as Mitsubishi Electric, map makers, and others—have come together to create detailed, high-definition 3D maps to help usher in safe autonomous driving. Japan’s government is backing the project as part of its effort to have driverless vehicles on the road in time for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. The 2020 target date has had the effect of focusing the country’s robocar efforts to prevent Japan from falling behind similar efforts underway in the United States and Europe.

Mitsubishi Electric is leading the project—dubbed Dynamic Map Planning—and is providing a new, compact version of its vehicle-mounted mobile mapping system. Mitsubishi began marketing a version of the system,…[Read more]