This week, we dig into the world of mapping as Mark Wheeler, Co-Founder & CTO of DeepMap, chats with host Grayson Brulte about the impact of HD maps on the evolution of autonomous vehicles.

Mark takes us on his career journey, from grad school at Carnegie Mellon University to his first job at Apple to the cryptic email that led to his groundbreaking mapping work at Leica to his reluctance to join “that search engine company,” Google. Mark also shares his personal history with his DeepMap co-founder and former Google desk mate, James Wu.

Grayson and Mark jump into why HD maps are the missing piece to solve full self-driving. Mark discusses the challenges that HD maps can solve by being able to “look around corners and look 10 seconds into the future." He explains the importance of being able to update maps on-the-go, in a matter of seconds, and how precise localization improves change detection to create a safer mode of transportation. He also disputes Tesla’s claim that a "map-based approach to deploying self-driving cars is not sustainable" by emphasizing the inevitability of HD maps and his energy for the task.

Mark shares some more information about DeepMap, detailing the company’s solutions and capabilities, early concepts, goals, the number of countries they’ve mapped, and the investors who have helped them grow and demonstrate confidence in the technology.

The conversation closes out with some industry insight from Mark as they discuss how mapping technologies are being incorporated into various mobility market segments as well as how the race to market between robo-taxis and SAE Level 2+ consumer vehicles will shape the future approach to mapping.

Learn more about DeepMap at www.deepmap.ai.

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