These maps seem to have a lot of intricacies built in (I.e. routing one direction on the way from A to B, but routing another due to “No U Turns / Left Turns”). They also update road names and construction blocks pretty quickly. Do they partner with government entities to pull this off since it borderlines a public utility?
In: 0
They buy their data from mapping companies
Once upon a time there were paper maps that were available. There are companies that were built up a longggg time ago around gathering map data and selling it to people who wanted to make maps. Its these companies that are going around, getting info about changes, updating road markings, and feeding all that back into systems which Google, Apple, and others buy from to stay up to date
Construction, accidents, and general road closures are submitted by users. When you have millions of users you’ll get pretty quick turnaround on this information. If 50 people submit tickets in a day that exit 85 is closed for construction then the system agrees it probably is and then marks it as closed. When its reopened they get the opposite tickets and remove the markings.
Traffic is automatically fed in by phones using navigation. If you’re on 95 and are supposed to be in a 65 zone but its 5:20 so you and the 100 cars around you are actually doing 12 then it’ll take that info and update the traffic in the area
Latest Answers