Driving Force - A Swedish Startup Aims To Solve The Mapping Problem In The Driverless Car Era

There was a time - and it wasn’t that long ago - when I found my way around the UK capital by using a book called London A to Z. When I wanted to find a particular street, I would look it up in the index, ascertain the grid reference and then flick through to the relevant page of the guide, where a map would be waiting for me.

Today, of course, I’m much more likely to check out the street on Google Street View before I leave the house and then, once I’ve set off, use one of the map apps on my smartphone to guide me from the nearest Underground station to the door of my destination.

And the truth is,  we now take digital mapping for granted. Whether using an in-car Sat Nav, a smartphone or a tablet, we assume - mostly correctly - that as long as there’s a 4G signal or a WiFi hotspot to hand or a GPS satellite overhead, we’re never going to get lost. The world has been well and truly  mapped out and digitized and we’re all the better for it.

But according to Jan Erik Solem, co-founder of Swedish startup Mapillary, the world has not quite got to the point were mapping companies and those who use their products  have all the data they need to render up-to-the minute representations the world that are fit for purpose in the era of smart cities and self driving cars.

Read more : https://www.forbes.com/