Member Article

what3words Indian partnerships tackle country's ‘notoriously unreliable’ addressing system

London startup what3words has launched two new partnerships with services in India that could save lives and provide a reliable addressing system across the vast country.

The business, which has developed its own unique addressing system, has partnered with Indian motorbike taxi service Bikxie, and Stanplus, a service that aggregates the country’s thousands of private ambulance services, to integrate its addressing format into their respective systems.

India’s addressing system is confused and opaque at the best of times, even in its cities and near local landmarks, which can make it difficult for ambulances and taxi services to pinpoint pick-up and drop off locations.

With the addressing system devised by what3words, the startup has divided the whole planet into 3m x 3m squares and for each square provided a fixed, memorable 3-word address, thus bringing a stable addressing system to parts of the world with unreliable address formats.

The problem is not just one of infrastructure either, with sexual assaults on the rise in places like New Delhi, it can be dangerous for women to stand alone on street corners at night, which is why Bikxie’s motorbike taxis for female riders will benefit from the new system.

Once implemented, its drivers will be able to quickly and accurately drop off passengers at chosen locations thanks to the 3-word addressing system to a high degree of precision.

Similarly, the partnership with Stanplus, which is currently at the trial stage but will be fully rolled out in the coming weeks, could help to drastically cut down response times no matter how rural the location, lessening the emergency service’s reliance on anecdotal directions and patchy addresses.

Following what3words’ new intiatives, Chris Sheldrick, Chief Executive and Co-Founder at what3words commented: “India has a rapidly growing economy but just like many other countries, it still suffers from the big three infrastructure challenges, the unbanked, the unconnected and the unaddressed. what3words wants to change that.

“Our mission is to become a global addressing standard, helping grow businesses and improve lives.”