Mapillary, the street-level imagery platform that uses computer vision to scale and automate mapping, just launched a dashcam that’s been customized for mapping purposes.
Built by Pittasoft in collaboration with Mapillary, the dashcam is lightweight, flexible, and able to capture anything from one to thirty frames per second, depending on the mapping needs. The images are geo-positioned on the map within hours of uploading to Mapillary and processed with computer vision that generates map data for fixing maps.
Mapillary CEO Jan Erik Solem says that the launch is set to help logistics companies deliver on increasingly ambitious promises around shipping:
“Broken maps are a big problem for many reasons. To most people, it’s annoying when an incorrect map means that you can’t find the place you’re going to, but for logistics companies under tight deadlines, this can have a big impact on how many deliveries they are able to make that day and eventually on their bottom line financial results.
According to Solem, equipping delivery fleets with the Mapillary dashcam means that these companies have access to near real-time map and location data through the Mapillary platform, without drivers doing any extra work.”
“This will allow them to plan their route around unpredictable road conditions and roadwork, improve addressing and delivery locations, and also see the place drivers are going to before going there,” says.
He adds that the dashcam requires minimum involvement from the driver, as the camera starts to capture imagery as soon as the van leaves the depot. He told LM in an interview that the “learning curve” was minimal.
“The dashcam was developed to be as effortless as possible for drivers, so there is practically no learning curve at all,” he says. “The camera is mounted on the windscreen of the vehicle, plugged into the 12V power adaptor (the cigarette lighter outlet), and it begins to capture images as soon as the vehicle starts.”