Founded five years ago by former employees of Google, Apple and Baidu, DeepMap has developed high-definition mapping technology that’s designed to meet the needs of autonomous vehicles (AV). Autonomous cars need centimeter-level precision for accurate localization—the ability to locate a vehicle in the world. Using crowdsourced data from vehicle sensors, DeepMap creates a map of the world that’s continuously updated as the car drives. Nvidia said its AV-focused Drive software platform will let DeepMap scale its maps across fleets of AVs quickly, with over-the-air updates that don’t require a lot of storage.
The chipmaker plans to incorporate DeepMap’s mapping IP into its self-driving vehicle technology. It expects to close the deal in the third quarter of 2021. Nvidia didn’t disclose how much it is paying for the Palo Alto-based startup, but it did say the company had raised $91 million in investors.
