A Better Way to Navigate
New York City-based startup Carmera has been under the radar for the past two years, but it’s slowly emerging with a way to create better resources for companies that use self-driving cars and trucks.
Carmera’s founders have discovered that up-to-date mapping data is the key to balancing the world of autonomous vehicles and the constant unpredictability of humans. With real-time updates of construction, new road developments, and more, companies can navigate busy roads in urban areas much easier – and 3D mapping may be the answer.
As Carmera’s co-founder and CEO Ro Gupta told Fortune Magazine, current 3D mapping technology is either “good but not for sale (Google’s 3D mapping data), decent, but expensive, slow to update, and only for sale to auto manufacturers (GPS companies like TomTom and Here); and bad and two dimensional, but free (crowdsourced sites like OpenStreet Map foundation).”
With a need for better mapping technology, Carmera was created and today, it has $6.4 million in funding from Matrix Partners, Notation Capital, Joe Montana,Resolute Ventures, Bre Pettis, Semil Shah and more. This funding allows the company to partner with delivery fleets in order to create reliable and efficient 3D maps. By attaching sensors to the vehicles, it can collect real-time data and transform it into a 3D map that can eventually be used by a wide variety of industries.
Right now, the data is only available in New York City, but Carmera has plans to expand its presence in the future.
*Photo courtesy of carmera.com
