Data advocacy group calls on Apple, Google, and Uber to share mapping data with rivals

A data advocacy group is pushing for regulation in the United Kingdom that would require companies like Apple, Google, and Uber to share their respective mapping data. The report explains that “data monopolies” in the U.K. are preventing younger, smaller companies from innovation.

The report comes from the Open Data Institute, which is a data advocacy group founded by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt, a University of Oxford artificial intelligence professor. The report highlights how geospatial data should be shared among companies for the greater benefit of various technologies (via The Verge).

Geospatial data drives many of the services we use everyday, including helping food travel from farms to shops, helping parcels get to our houses, and apps that help us make journeys such as Apple Maps and Waze. Analysing geospatial data can help us understand and increase access to health facilities, schools or public green spaces

OPI says that technologies such as autonomous driving and connected vehicles, drones, and transport services could stall and lack innovation without companies like Apple, Google, and Uber sharing mapping data. The report cites data from the UK government, which estimates that maximizing the value of geospatial data could generate £6–11 billion each year.

The UK Government has estimated that maximising the value of such data could generate £6–11bn each year and has committed to making the geospatial data it holds more openly available – particularly that held by Ordnance Survey.

Making data from both the public and private sectors openly available and interoperable will mean more organisations can access data from different sources and combine it to build new services and technologies.

The publication of the ODI’s report comes ahead of a review from the UK government of current geospatial strategies. Read the full report here.

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