Exclusive | Tencent-backed mapmaker NavInfo building high-definition map of Singapore for autonomous cars

Singapore’s tree-lined streets may provide much-needed shade and respite from its unrelenting heat, but the same green cover is making it tougher for mapping companies like NavInfo to create the sort of precise maps that cars can use to drive themselves in future.

The tree cover obscures satellite imaging, while wayward tree branches and leaves may block road signs and make it harder for the roof-mounted cameras from capturing the surroundings needed to create a 3D hi-definition map, according to NavInfo.

Still, the Tencent Holdings-backed company is working with the authorities in Singapore on the mapping exercise, which is expected to be completed 2019, Li Yang, deputy manager of NavInfo’s automated driving research department, said in an interview last week in Beijing.

Singapore would be the first overseas market for NavInfo, which has mapped 210,000 kilometres of motorways at home in China, or about five times the circumference of Earth. HD mapping is crucial for autonomous driving because radars and sensors built into self-driving cars have a limited range of 100 to 300 metres.

Besides its core mapping and navigation services, NavInfo is also developing autonomous driving software for carmakers and robotaxi operators, Li said. The company’s maps can support levels of driving automation, he said.