New Mobility's Mega-Mappers

Most believe ultrahigh-definition mapping is crucial to make high-level automated driving possible. Developing these maps is a huge undertaking - one that's enjoying a massive investment of money and talent.

A yellow sign on a mountain highway shows an S-shaped curve. This is a primitive map, and hardly a faithful representation of the road. Instead it delivers a simple signal to the driver: Get ready for turns.

Road cartography has evolved over centuries with a unifying purpose: to guide human beings from point A to point B. Complexity often gets in the way. “You don't want too much detail,” says Wei Luo, formerly a product manager at Google Maps and now chief operating officer at Deepmaps, a Palo Alto, California-based startup. “That can confuse people.”