As the Japanese economy struggles to remain competitive in the existing consumer electronics market, its leaders are turning their eyes toward the future of autonomous vehicles and robotic technologies as a source of innovation and growth, including showcasing self-driving vehicles at the upcoming 2020 Olympics.

Increment P North America Inc. has a long-standing history of providing mapping technologies within Japan, and the company’s president, Andy Parsons (pictured), described how it is involved in the latest government initiative.

“We have been building up a very rich database of the country of Japan for mapping purposes. … Even in standard definition maps there are many layers, you’ve got terrain, road networks, points of interest, railways and public transportation,” Parsons said. “All of those are different layers that we’ve built on top of, and we license that technology to a number of other companies that use them for in-car navigation or map applications on smartphones. Then we maintain them.”

Parsons spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during this year’s Auto Tech Council – Innovation in Motion event in Milpitas, Ca. (* Disclosure below.)

Autonomous vehicles by 2020

In order to make a bold statement about its place at the technology table, Japan has set a very aggressive deadline to showcase autonomous vehicles at the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.

“The Japanese government has effectively defined the Tokyo Olympics as a milestone to have level three autonomous vehicles up and running in the areas immediately around the Tokyo Olympics,” Parsons said. “In order to that they’ve formed a coalition of companies, including automotive OEMs [original equipment manufacturer], as well as map producers, to work together to make this an ecosystem for high-definition mapping. It’s like coming up with a standard for use in Japan.”  

Bringing all the different players to the table accelerates innovation and convergence around a standardized solution, but it also presents challenges for the parties involved.

“It’s comprised of the input from a lot of private companies that agree to make a contribution to what becomes a standard. … The challenge is making a contribution to a standard and at the same time allow your company to differentiate itself and be able to provide solutions in the commercial marketplace,” Parsons stated. 

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Auto Tech Council – Innovation in Motion. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Auto Tech Council – Innovation in Motion. Neither Western Digital Corp., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE