Mapping Amazing: Bee Maps
11 days ago
- #mapping-technology
- #data-collection
- #navigation-systems
- The author's career began in 1985 at Etak, a startup funded by Nolan Bushnell, known for pioneering in-vehicle navigation systems.
- Etak had to create digital maps from scratch, using VAX minicomputers and manually digitizing topographic maps due to the lack of available digital maps.
- Early navigation systems like the Etak Navigator used simple maps with flashing stars for guidance, lacking turn-by-turn directions.
- By the 1990s, satellite and aerial imagery improved map-making, but road attributes were still collected manually, which was time-consuming.
- Google Street View, launched in 2007, revolutionized map data collection by using fleets of vehicles to gather photographic and road data.
- Maintaining up-to-date map data is challenging, especially with volatile information like stop signs, traffic lights, and speed limits.
- Autonomous vehicles require highly detailed HD Maps with centimeter-level accuracy, adding complexity to data collection.
- Bee Maps, founded in 2015, uses a unique business model involving hardware devices installed in vehicles to collect map data continuously.
- Users earn HONEY cryptocurrency for driving with Bee Maps devices, which also function as dash cams.
- Bee Maps has impressive coverage, mapping 36% of global roads and licensing data to major companies like TomTom, HERE, and VW.
- Bee Maps' fleet of tens of thousands of devices far surpasses traditional mapping companies' fleets of a few hundred vehicles.
- Tesla and other car manufacturers do not share their data, limiting their impact on global map data collection compared to Bee Maps.