The use of digital road data is becoming increasingly important. By enabling a number of driver assistance and safety functions, accurate 2D and 3Droad data supports a number of vehicular applications. In the past, significant time and costs were involved in the production of highly accurate 3D road data. Intermap Technologies® developed a method that greatly accelerates the data production process. The basis for the production of the 3D road geometry database is Intermap's NEXTMap® program, an airborne surveying and digital mapping of the earth's surface program that uses interferometric radar technology. The NEXTMap program, to date, has focused on the entirety of Western Europe and the United States. Highly accurate 3D centerlines of all road categories are created from the NEXTMap data. For years,Intermap has worked closely with automotive partners to demonstrate the benefits, and to expedite the development, of 3D map data in driver assistance and safety systems. To support map data in various applications, Intermap has developed and implemented software that extracts the map section in front of the car and provides it to the CAN bus. With its partners, Intermap is working on the map-based optimization of transmission and engine management, the charge cycles of both hybrid and fully electrical vehicles,and curve speed warning. Predictive curve lighting is among the applications that have been already successfully road tested.
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