Paulus29 schreef op 16 september 2016 19:56:
Uber's city-mapping cars are coming to London
Dozens of Uber's mapping cars are coming to London in a move that could further develop the company's driverless car ambitions
For driverless cars to be able to take passengers to their destinations, they need to know where they are in the world.
A day after Uber's self-driving taxi has started public testing in the US, the company has announced it's bringing its mapping cars to the United Kingdom.
The firm, which has been involved in disputes with London regulators and taxi drivers, says the mapping cars will help to improve its service.
A Uber spokesperson told WIRED "dozens" of the cars would be used in London and then move to other cities in the UK.
"The street imagery captured by our mapping cars will help us improve core elements of the Uber experience, like ideal pick-up and drop-off points and the best routes for riders and drivers," the company said in a blog post.
It continued to say that current maps include information – such as ocean topography – that isn't relevant to Uber drivers and it needs to know more about areas. "We need to know a lot more about, like traffic patterns and precise pickup and drop-off locations," it said.
The current Uber interface is built using the Google Maps API, while in China the firm partners with Baidu.
But beyond this, maps are a crucial part of autonomous technology. In 2015, the company introduced its mapping cars elsewhere around the world.
“With autonomous vehicles, maps are going to be fundamental,” Brian McClendon, a vice president at Uber told The Atlantic in July this year.
He continued: "Some things we need, Google doesn’t have. We need to figure out how to improve, and build a service based on those improvements."
www.wired.co.uk/article/uber-mapping-...