Bad Maps Are Killing People

HERE HD mapping (Credit: Daimler)

It’s no secret maps on phones and car infotainment systems suck. Adding to that bad news, they’re putting lives at risk, even caused some deaths. A recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report pointed out this obvious fact.

It also said what others have been preaching for some time: autonomous cars will never work with sucky maps. After all, your robot vehicle could leave you in the middle of a corn field, instead of the airport, drive off a cliff, or maybe even take you to a Taylor Swift concert. The possibilities are horrifying.

The NTSB is requesting tech companies make some changes to maps. For one, it wants about 200,000 grade crossings, like when railroad tracks and roads intersect, added to maps. A notorious case in California involved a guy using Google Maps, getting stuck on railroad tracks, and causing a crash that killed a train passenger.

What’s it going to take to have accurate maps? There are plenty of challenges, from new road construction to temporary situations like natural disasters that damage and close roads, and autonomous cars will have to deal with them all. Right now, we’re not there yet, and the whole maps issue could mean fully autonomous cars are still way off in the future.