Hivemapper, a startup that places dashcams on ride-hail and delivery vehicles to map the world, is edging closer to its goal of disrupting Google’s B2B mapping empire. Despite being the underdog in this fight, with only 2% of the world’s roads mapped, Hivemapper is making steady progress.
In the last three months alone, Hivemapper has gathered over 1 million kilometers of unique street-level imagery, a significant achievement for the startup. In contrast, it took Google from 2007 to 2019 to collect 16.1 million kilometers of unique road data.
Hivemapper’s approach to data collection sets it apart from Google. Instead of investing millions in dedicated mapping vehicles, Hivemapper relies on individual contributors worldwide. Equipped with high-quality imagers and precise GPS, the startup’s dashcams retail for $549.
Hivemapper claims that mapping with dashcams ensures that its data is continuously updated. In contrast, much of Google’s Street View imagery, particularly in rural areas, is over a decade old.