海角大神

Uber plans to map the world, freeing itself from reliance on Google Maps and paving the way for its own fleet of driverless cars.

Uber鈥檚 mapping vehicles hit American roads last year, were introduced in Mexico earlier this summer, and will eventually extend to the other 76 countries where the ride-hailing service operates, gathering precise data on pickup and drop-off locations and traffic patterns.聽Following an influx of $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia鈥檚 sovereign wealth fund, Uber says it will invest $500 million in developing its in-house maps, the Financial Times reported.

鈥淲ith autonomous vehicles, ,鈥� Brian McClendon, a vice president at Uber, told The Atlantic. 鈥淎nd the maps that are needed for autonomous vehicles are beyond anything that鈥檚 being created today by any third party.鈥� An expert in geospatial data visualization, Mr. McClendon led Google Maps for more than a decade before jumping to Uber to lead its mapping projects last June.

Google, an early investor in Uber, is now one of its competitors in the race for autonomous vehicles. Google's driverless cars have travelled more than 1.7 million miles autonomously, relying on Google's approach to mapping roads. Its system gives a clear 3D picture of what empty roads look like, composed of millions of data points,聽which cars can subtract out , as Forbes reports.

But Google has hiked its fees to use Google Maps, making reliance on the company even less attractive for Uber.聽

Already, each company pursuing self-driving vehicle technology has its own approach.聽One British startup, FiveAI, challenges the need for detailed maps for autonomous vehicles altogether. FiveAI has secured $2.7 million in its bid of environments, as TechCrunch reported. Using, computer vision and AI/machine learning, self-driving cars can learn to understand and navigate even crowded urban environments based on just a simple map, according to the startup's officials.

But Uber is taking the cue from other companies well on their way to developing autonomous cars that are heavily committed to maps. In mid-July, Uber also launched a 聽to gain access to the company鈥檚 high resolution satellite imagery.聽German automakers outbid Uber to purchase Nokia鈥檚 HERE Map business last summer.

Apple debuted its own maps in 2012, and has recently prioritized for its under-wraps autonomous car initiative, dubbed Project Titan. Meanwhile, Tesla is creating high-precision digital maps .

One advantage of Uber creating its own maps could be a chance to include precise details, like the location of a front door of an office building or a driveway, to help drivers identify exactly where passengers are waiting to be picked up. In developing countries where Google Maps tends to be less accurate and street signs aren鈥檛 ubiquitous, Uber drivers often have to call passengers to clarify their location, the Financial Times reports 鈥� an inconvenience Uber hopes to eliminate.

Uber, most recently valued by investors at $62.5 billion, is now Silicon Valley鈥檚 .聽Saudi Arabia鈥檚 sovereign wealth fund鈥檚 recent investments top not only every investment in Uber, but , setting Uber on firm financial footing to forge its own path in the autonomous car market.