Dive Brief:
- Israeli-based autonomous vehicle software firm Mobileye, an Intel company, will partner with Great Britain’s national mapping agency Ordnance Survey to create high-quality maps of U.K. streets and bring advanced location data to British companies and utilities, the duo announced at CES.
- Ordnance Survey vehicles will be outfitted with Mobileye technology to collect location data on infrastructure, which will then be cross-referenced with existing data sets to develop more accurate road maps. Those maps will then be used by Ordnance Survey partners such as utility companies, who can benefit from more specific data on the location of equipment and maintenance needs.
- "Using maps to improve operations between businesses and cities will help bring us closer to the realization of smart cities and safer roads," said Mobileye President and CEO Amnon Shashua in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Mobileye has made its name in autonomous vehicles — including a partnership with Volkswagen for a self-driving taxi service — so a road and infrastructure survey may seem like a departure. The company is touting it as a way of showing the application of mapping software outside of autonomous vehicles, and how Mobileye’s "unique mapping capabilities can extend the value of location data to businesses in new market segments," according to a press statement. The data will be anonymized for privacy.
The data will have plenty of uses for Ordnance Survey as it works to develop smart infrastructure. The high quality data will help map out plans for 5G infrastructure, offer a backbone for intelligent mobility software and help utilities expand broadband and wireless offerings.
As advanced location and mapping software comes online, cities are embracing the opportunity to get higher-quality information about their infrastructure. Coord, a Sidewalk Labs-backed cloud-based integration platform, announced a new Surveyor app this fall that will allow users to collect location information for infrastructure, including hydrants and utility poles, adding a digital touch to the normally manual surveying job. Swedish startup Mapillary is using its collection of street-level photos to gather parking sign information for cities in partnership with Amazon.
In an interview with Smart Cities Dive, Coral Gables, FL information technology department director Raimundo Rodulfo described how advanced location data have helped align data across sensor networks to create “actionable information,” including crime response and public safety preparedness.
