July 15, 2016—Ford has invested in Civil Maps, a California startup that creates 3-D maps for autonomous cars, according to a report from Automotive News.
Ford is among five investors providing $6.6 million in seed funding for the startup. Other investors include Motus Ventures, Wicklow Capital, StartX Stanford and AME Cloud Ventures.
The startup uses artificial intelligence to build detailed 3-D maps that can be used in autonomous vehicles. The Civil Maps system uses less data than other systems, so the maps can be loaded faster over a cell network, providing better real-time data to the car.
"Investing in and working with Civil Maps gives us an additional way to develop 3-D high-resolution maps, which will bring fully autonomous Ford vehicles a step closer for consumers," said Alan Hall, Ford spokesman.
