Google's new cameras could help Waymo (GOOGL, GOOG)

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Google is improving the cameras it uses to capture images for Google Maps and Street View, according to Wired.

Beyond just bolstering these consumer-facing products, these new cameras will also provide massive amounts of raw visual data that Waymo, the self-driving car company that's also owned by Alphabet, can use to improve image recognition and vehicle-guidance programs.

Waymo can use image data from Google Maps and Street View in a couple of key ways:

• It will have a wealth of new data to use in training image-recognition software. Autonomous cars use cameras along with an array of other sensors to identify objects around them and determine where it’s safe to drive. Machine learning powers the software that interprets that data, though, and it relies on fresh, high-quality images to get smarter. These cameras will provide them.
• They can also help Google build up a highly detailed mapping database that autonomous cars can tap into. Self-driving vehicles can either use sensors to constantly process the world around them and build a digital model of it, or they can start from a pre-existing map and use real-time sensors to place themselves accurately within that map, like GM’s Super Cruise system, which limits the use of autonomous mode to pre-mapped locations. The latter model is more efficient in that it doesn’t require the car to repeatedly process the same data, but to implement it requires a significant up-front investment in mapping. Fully autonomous vehicles will need both types of systems in place to drive without restrictions, but improved maps from Google could help Waymo to improve its autonomous systems and ease the burden on its in-car computers.

Mapping is essential to the development of autonomous vehicles, and companies are investing heavily to make sure they have access to high-quality maps. A group of German automakers spent around $3 billion for Nokia’s HERE mapping service, while Uber announced plans to spend $500 million on maps, and GM is looking to Cruise Automation to develop maps for its autonomous vehicles. Waymo could gain a key edge by leveraging improved data coming from Google’s Maps team.

The self-driving car is no longer a futuristic fantasy. Consumers can already buy vehicles that, within a few years time, will get software updates enabling them to hit the road without the need for a driver.

This autonomous revolution will upend the automotive sector and disrupt huge swaths of the economy, while radically improving energy efficiency and changing the way people approach transport around the world.

Automakers and tech companies are racing to develop the technology that will power self-driving cars in the coming years. That tech is advancing, but leaves observers with a bigger question: will consumers trust driverless car tech, and will they want to use autonomous cars?

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on self-driving cars that:

• Sizes the current and future self-driving car market, forecasting shipments and projecting installed base.
• Explains the current state of technology, regulation, and consumer perception.
• Analyzes how the development of autonomous cars will impact employment and the economy.

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