Skip to main content

How Cruise builds digital maps for its self-driving cars

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Developing self-driving cars is about more than teaching computers when to accelerate or brake. Autonomous driving systems need to be programmed with an untold number of behavioral cues that human drivers take for granted. General Motors-owned Cruise believes the key to making its cars better drivers is by creating better digital maps to guide them. Here’s how Cruise does that.

Recommended Videos

Some companies buy maps from third-party suppliers, but Cruise chose to develop all of its maps in-house. This gives Cruise complete control, and makes it easier to keep the maps up to date and implement changes, Erin Antcliffe, Cruise’s senior project manager for mapping, wrote in a blog post.

Self-driving cars use maps for the same reason humans do — to figure out where they are. In major cities like San Francisco, where Cruise tests prototype autonomous cars on public streets, tall buildings can block GPS signals, Antcliffe noted. Cruise’s maps also contain information like the boundaries of lanes, and the locations of traffic lights and curbs.

When a car drives down a street, it uses lidar to compare the surrounding environment to a map, allowing it to determine its location down to the centimeter, Antcliffe said. Putting more information onto maps frees up processing power for maneuvers, and gives the car the ability to precisely position itself, she added. That makes it easier for cars to deal with the unpredictable actions of other vehicles, as well as cyclists and pedestrians, on crowded city streets.

That data is only useful if it is accurate, though. Without going into much detail, Antcliffe said Cruise has the ability to quickly update its maps to account for changes such as construction or the addition of new bike lanes. Antcliffe called this a “competitive advantage.”

Map development goes hand in hand with the development of self-driving cars themselves, Antcliffe said. Just like human drivers, self-driving cars perform better when they’re more familiar with the road environment. Cruise is able to encode that familiarity into its maps, adding information based on previous experience in a given area. Multiple versions of a specific map feature can be tested at once, and the one that works best can be quickly applied across Cruise’s autonomous fleet.

Cruise believes better maps will give it an advantage in the race to commercialize self-driving cars, but those plans recently hit a roadblock. Cruise parent GM initially wanted to launch a pilot ridesharing service in 2019, but Cruise has said it cannot meet that deadline. Meanwhile, Waymo has launched a small-scale commercial ridesharing service in Arizona, and other companies are giving rides to the public as part of pilot programs.

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
Cruise robocars make a cautious return to Houston
A Cruise autonomous car.

Robotaxi specialist Cruise is restarting tests of its autonomous vehicles on the streets of Houston, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday.

Cruise’s main backer, General Motors, said on the same day that it’s investing a further $850 million in the robotaxi project.

Read more
Tesla Autopilot vs. full self-driving: What’s the difference?
A Telsa Model 3 drives along a road.

It's no longer the only company with self-driving cars on the road, but Tesla was one of the first brands to make this innovative functionality available to the public. Thanks to an array of cameras, sensors, and AI technology, most Telsa vehicles are capable of driving themselves to some degree. However, this doesn't mean drivers can take a nap behind the wheel. In fact, none can be used without driver supervision -- and there are some serious limitations to the tech.

Tesla currently offers features known as Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. But what's the difference between the two? And is one more reliable than the other? Here's everything you need to know about Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technology.
Tesla Autopilot

Read more
Beleaguered robotaxi startup Cruise lays off quarter of workforce
A Cruise autonomous car.

Beleaguered autonomous car startup Cruise has laid off 900 workers, equal to about a quarter of its workforce. The news comes a day after nine executives were also dismissed.

The General Motors-backed firm has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months, triggered by an accident on the streets of San Francisco in October when one of its self-driving cars came to a halt on top of a woman, pinning her to the ground just moments after she’d been hit by a human-driven car.

Read more