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Uber lays the groundwork for driverless cars as it starts mapping London

US taxi hailing firm Uber has announced that from today (Friday) its city-mapping vehicles will be stalking London’s street as the firm looks to improve its services in the city.

The cars, which are already in operation in the US, will collect data and imagery from across London in order to help Uber improve its services by providing it with more relevant data than that provided by services such as Google Maps.

It said that technology such as mobile mapping and GPS were crucial to its services and the ‘backbone of its business’, and that, by collecting its own mapping information, the ride hailing giant was able to offer more accurate arrival times and better pick up and drop off points.

In a statement the firm said: “The ongoing need for maps tailored to the Uber experience is why we’re doubling down on our investment in mapping. Last year we put mapping cars on the road in the United States.

“From today they will be on the road in London and in the coming weeks and months the mapping cars will move to other Uber cities in the UK. Our efforts are similar to what other companies including Apple and TomTom are already doing around the world.”

Uber’s interest in mapping is also fuelled by its ongoing development of driverless car technology, which began public testing in Pittsburgh yesterday, with high-definition (HD) mapping widely touted as being the key to the wider adoption of driverless vehicles.

Google, TomTom and German mapping business HERE, along with some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers, are all carrying out HD mapping efforts to help autonomous vehicles locate themselves down to the nearest centimetre in the real world to overcome inherent shortcomings in GPS and sensor technology.

Uber $500m to its mapping programme after a $3.5bn investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund in June.