'Google, Apple, and Uber Should Be Forced To Share Their Mapping Data' (technologyreview.com)

The UK government should encourage companies like Apple, Google, and Uber to publish more map data to help the development of technologies like driverless cars and drones, according to a new report by the Open Data Institute. From a report: This sort of data, which includes addresses and city boundaries, fuels tons of everyday services, from parcel and food deliveries to apps like Google Maps and Uber. Internet giants are sitting on top of vast amounts of geospatial data, but it is largely inaccessible to others. The ODI argues it should be as open as possible as a part of "national infrastructure." Analyzing map data can help communities and organizations make decisions across a vast range of sectors -- for example, how to improve access to a school or hospital.

Comments

Say what?

[msauve]

Those companies expended resources to get that data.

Perhaps they should be asking government, who built the majority of the roads, and created the plans and surveys, which should be better than anything which can be collected by simply driving around.

Re:Why not just use OpenStreetMap?

[Anubis IV]

it would be hard to imagine an incentive for them to do so.

I'll disagree. Once all competing companies in a space achieve parity for a particular feature that isn't getting any better, there really isn't any reason for them to work separately any longer. After all, at that point the front-runners would have lost their competitive advantage, so they'll never see any gain against their competitors come from further investment in that feature. Spending money on that feature would simply be the cost to tread water against their competition, without any ability to actually get ahead.

At that point, why not open the data up? If you can externalize the cost by dumping it on society or, if nothing else, split the cost among everyone in the industry, why wouldn't you? It doesn't cost you anything competitively and it would significantly reduce your costs, allowing you to spend more time and money on the areas where they can help you get ahead better. Plus, if you're the one leading that charge towards openness, you get to define the de facto standard, meaning you can be ahead of everyone else in supporting/do less work to support the new thing.