Virtual replica of Tokyo’s Shuto Expressway to aid autonomous vehicle development

Simulation software specialist rFpro has created a high accuracy digital replica of Tokyo’s famous Shuto Expressway, Inner Circular route, aimed at helping vehicle engineering developers.

The 35km section of road, also known as the C1 route Expressway, has been modelled using survey-grade LiDAR scan data to create a vehicle dynamics grade road surface, which apparently is accurate to within an incredible 1mm. It even accurately simulates the effects of every bump, drain cover and expansion joint around the full route.

“The C1 route is one of the most challenging stretches of city roads in the world for an autonomous vehicle to navigate,” said Matt Daley, rFpro Managing Director. “With constantly changing road curvature and elevation, complex and densely situated junctions and a huge array of road signs and markings, it is the ultimate test of autonomous vehicle technologies and is the perfect way to exercise and develop such capabilities safely.”

The company says simulating some of the world’s most challenging roads in this way significantly accelerates the training of artificial intelligence (AI) by reducing cost and risks of collecting real world data.

The virtual environment has already been adopted by major vehicle manufacturers, mainly for the development of autonomous vehicles.