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By Daniel Charles June 2005 Page 1 of next On a snowy morning in early March, looking for the frontiers of digital mapmaking, I hopped into the back seat of an SUV sporting a Global Positioning System receiver on the roof. In front sat two representatives from Navteq, one of the companies that builds the street maps that you see on MapQuest. Phil Satlof, senior geographic analyst, operated a laptop computer hooked up to the GPS receiver.
Looking at the computer's screen, I felt we'd stepped inside a video game. A flashing arrow showed our progress through the familiar grid of Washington's streets. I watched, fascinated, as it marched down a line marked "River Road" into Montgomery County, Maryland. Half an hour later, in the wealthy suburb of Potomac, the arrow reached the limits of its knowledge. On the screen, the road ended. But our vehicle kept moving, around three new cul-de-sacs in a barren landscape of newly graded dirt, monstrous half-built houses, and yawning holes waiting for foundations. As we drove, the flashing arrow traced our route, expanding Navteq's map of the navigable universe. Satlof added, by hand, what the GPS receiver couldn't see: house numbers, one-way streets, and anything else that pizza delivery drivers may need to know. "We're really a routing company, and as a by-product, we make a map," he explained. | |
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