UvA & TomTom Open New ICAI Lab

University of Amsterdam and TomTom will be opening a new research lab for autonomous driving. The Atlas Lab will use AI for developing HD maps for self-driving vehicles.

Location technology specialist, TomTom, and the UvA, have announced the launch of a new public-private research lab. Atlas Lab will focus on using AI for developing advanced, highly accurate and safe high definition maps for self-driving vehicles. The lab is part of ICAI Amsterdam, the regional branch of the national Innovation Centre for AI, based in the Amsterdam Science Park.

In collaboration with TomTom, the UvA is embarking on research on the use of AI for creating HD maps suitable for all levels of autonomous driving. Theo Gevers, one of the Scientific Directors at Atlas Lab, comments: ‘At the UvA we are already doing research on automated recognition of items in images and videos. Yet the recognition of items and creation of HD maps in highly complex situations like a moving car, is still a huge challenge. This collaboration with TomTom provides an extra dimension to new and challenging AI-research.’

For the next five years, five PhD students will work in the Atlas lab on projects contributing to automated recognition of items like traffic signs, 3D-localization of vehicles and combining LIDAR (light detection and ranging) laser and camera images. For retrieving data, mobile mapping vans equipped with sensors, like LIDAR-systems and cameras, are being used.

‘TomTom is pushing the boundaries of the use of AI for making HD maps for self-driving cars,’ said Harold Goddijn, TomTom’s CEO. ‘We need groundbreaking research into AI technology, which is why we’re collaborating with UvA’s world-leading AI department on this initiative. This will move us a step closer to an autonomous future with safer roads, free of congestion and emissions.’

Read More

  • CWI spin-off DuckDB Labs partners with Motherduck, which raises $47.5 million

    CWI spin-off company DuckDB Labs helped create startup MotherDuck which aims to connect DuckDB to the cloud. MotherDuck sports some big names: its CEO is Jordan Tigani, founding engineer at Google’s BigQuery, Google’s fully managed data analysis platform. A big part of the $47.5 million funding comes from Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent venture capital firm, specialized in technology startups.

  • Building an international research community: HHAI Conference 2023

    Breaking ground as the first international conference on Hybrid Human Artificial Intelligence, HHAI22 held its first-ever in-person meeting in Amsterdam in the summer of 2022, establishing the beginnings of an international research community. ADS contributed to the conference by hosting a Meetup around the topic of Hybrid Intelligence.

  • Inaugural Speech Nanda Piersma

    There are legal rules and ethical frameworks, but little or no practical guidance on responsible design. In her inaugural lecture “System error, please restart”, Nanda Piersma argues what ‘responsible’ means and how we can carry out the (further) development of IT systems in such a way that they earn our trust.