Accuraatheid op centimeter-niveau met de hulp van satellieten is één van de voorwaarden voor de zelfrijdende auto.
Een tweede voorwaarde is dat er
3D-kaarten beschikbaar zijn
van het wegennet. Wat doet men in Japan?
Go Takezawa, executive director for QZSS Strategy at Japan’s National Space Policy Secretariat, in updating the press last Tuesday, said that QZSS will help aid the creation of 3D maps, another essential component necessary to make driverless vehicles operationally safe. Currently, the Dynamic Map Platform Co. (DMPC), a government-backed joint venture between major Japanese auto manufacturers, Mitsubishi Electric, and map-related companies, is creating 3D maps of 30,000 kilometers of Japanese highways. The company is capitalized at 4 billion yen (US $36.4 million) a third of which the Japanese government is funding through the public-private Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, DMPC’s major investor.
Enkele andere toepassingen van GNSS, anders dan de zelfrijdende auto:
Other applications Takizawa cited include precision control - of autonomous tractors in agriculture,
- of machinery used in large-scale construction,
- and of drones employed in delivering goods to small islands close to Japan.
Takizawa noted that tests of all these applications are ongoing, and good results have been obtained in all cases.