With Self-Driving Cars, We're All Cartographers

Mapmaking used to be the domain of a select group of cartographers that would gather, review, and plot out data onto sheets of paper. The chances that you actually knew a cartographer in the past were probably pretty slim--but not anymore. Today and in the future, virtually everyone is or will be a contributor to the increasingly detailed maps that represent the world we live in. As our vehicles become increasingly automated, they need ever more detailed maps and not just the maps we get from Google or Apple on our smartphones. The self-driving car will need much more information.