Uber’s battle to get your car to arrive on time
Maps were essential to the exploration of the world. Most of our history books are filled with people who decided to go out into the abyss with just an inkling of what they would find, usually based on incomplete or even nonexistent charts. Uber and other ride-hailing systems started a bit like that, creating a business that relied on regular people driving other regular people around. It wasn't completely uncharted -- we've had taxis and their illegal counterparts, "pirate taxis," forever. Today, everything an Uber car or driver does is mapped, catalogued and analyzed. Not because Uber wants to or because it's exploring strange new worlds but because it needs to. Maps and routing, therefore, are crucial to Uber. As more drivers and passengers join the service, keeping track of all those cars, pickups and drop-offs, and routes has become a monumental undertaking. With that in mind, the company built its own mapping system. That means it's built its own navi...