by Stephanie Ip/Vancouver Sun/Special to the 黑马磁力 Advance
Uber is banking on a future in B.C. by doing its research and upgrading its maps of Metro Vancouver.
Beginning Thursday, the ride-hailing tech company will send 25 vehicles out on the road to collect mapping imagery for its app in anticipation of the service鈥檚 eventual launch on Canada鈥檚 West Coast. The cars will not be doing pickups and drop-offs, and are for collecting mapping information.
Data collected here will be used to enhance maps and offer more precise pickup and drop-off locations, and is part of a Canada-wide mapping project that began last year.
Ramit Kar, Uber鈥檚 general manager for Western Canada, called the operation 鈥渁 significant investment.鈥�
The company has been improving its Canadian maps for the past year and given that all three B.C. political parties said they were in favour of allowing Uber to operate in the province before the end of 2017, it only made sense to include Metro Vancouver and elsewhere in the project, he said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hopeful they follow through on that,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he big thing here is we鈥檙e trying to make our product better and put our best foot forward.鈥�
When Uber first rolled out in the United States seven years ago, they were reliant on third-party data. Since they鈥檝e started running their own tracking vehicles 鈥� the Canadian project started with Edmonton last year 鈥� 鈥淭he quality of the data has been so much better,鈥� Kar said.
They do have partnerships with companies like Google in their mapping, but 鈥渋t鈥檚 not exactly optimized for our purposes,鈥� said Kar.
Uber will determine which are the best routes between commonly visited spots, where the best pickup spots are, where the actual entrances to buildings are, things like that. It鈥檚 about eliminating what Kar called 鈥渁rtifacts of data.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 really to help both on the driver and on the rider side,鈥� he added. 鈥淚t gets rid of a whole layer of frustration.鈥�
While mobile maps and GPS information can match drivers with riders and determine driving directions, more information about traffic patterns, building entrances, and pickup and drop-off points is needed before the service launches in B.C.
鈥淭he ongoing need for maps tailored to the Uber experience is why we鈥檙e doubling down on our investment in mapping,鈥� Manik Gupta, head of maps at Uber said in a statement.
鈥淥ver the past decade mapping innovation has changed our daily life. That progress will only accelerate in the coming years especially with technologies like self-driving cars.鈥�
Having Uber鈥檚 cars on the road is good advertising, too, Kar admitted.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a great opportunity for British Columbians to see Uber on the road,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l think, 鈥榦h that鈥檚 Uber, that鈥檚 pretty cool.鈥欌��
鈥� With a file from Patrick Johnston
