Carmera and Toyota collaborated on a mapping project in Detroit in 2019. Less than three months after acquiring Lyft's autonomous vehicle unit for $550 million, Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings made another acquisition to strengthen its position in the market. Woven Planet is acquiring HD mapping startup Carmera for an undisclosed amount. Carmera and Toyota are already quite familiar with each other. The companies collaborated on multiple projects from 2018-2020 in Detroit, Michigan, and Japan.

Here's what the satellite created, and it's everything a self-driving car needs from a quick photo. Before anyone believes self-driving cars will be able to storm streets around the world, automakers and companies with interests in automated vehicles need to complete a major task: mapping the world's infrastructure of roads. Until then, it's why we see companies like Waymo and Cruise Automation only carry out tests within certain areas with geo-fenced portions of a city. These roads are what the self-driving car knows exclusively, thanks to HD mapping. But Toyota may be on the verge of a breakthrough when it comes to the daunting task.