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Grab is Messing Up the World’s Largest Mapping Community’s Data in Southeast Asia

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday December 26 2018, @12:33PM   
from the end-of-the-world dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Grab is messing up the world's largest mapping community's data in Southeast Asia

Grab, Southeast Asia's top ride-hailing company, has hit a roadblock in its efforts to improve its mapping and routing service after running into trouble with OpenStreetMap, the world's largest collaborative mapping community, through a series of blundering edits in Thailand.

Grab, which gobbled up Uber's local business in exchange for an equity swap earlier this year, has busily added details and upgraded the maps it uses across its eight markets in Southeast Asia.

[...] Grab's effort to improve the never-ending quest of more accurate maps involves a multi-input approach that uses Google Maps as the base with Grab adding in its own information — "points of interest" cultivated through customer feedback and groundwork — and other public or licensed information.

However, what appears to be a focus on speed has seen it suspend all activities in Thailand — Southeast Asia's second-largest economy — after it was found to have overwritten data developed by OpenStreetMap (OSM) with inaccurate edits that were created by a remote team based in India.

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Original Submission

• Re:tl;dr Re:tl;dr (Score: 1, Redundant) by SparkyGSX on Wednesday December 26 2018, @01:23PM (2 children)

  by SparkyGSX (4041) on Wednesday December 26 2018, @01:23PM (#778543)

  That would imply they are actually capable of producing good results if you either pay more or wait longer.

  --
  If you do what you did, you'll get what you got

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Re:tl;dr (Score: 2) by SparkyGSX on Wednesday December 26 2018, @01:25PM

  by SparkyGSX (4041) on Wednesday December 26 2018, @01:25PM (#778544)

  Crap, cognitive expectations got in the way of properly reading apparently. Guess it was outsourced.

  --
  If you do what you did, you'll get what you got

  Parent

• Re:tl;dr (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @03:28PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @03:28PM (#778565)

  Another outsourcing success story. Fast, Cheap, Good ... pick none.

  That would imply they are actually capable of producing good results if you either pay more or wait longer.

  No, I'd say that "pick none" implies that no matter how long you wait, or how much you pay, it still won't be good.

  In reality if you're wanting to cut costs on your workers you should always expect the result to be crappier work, no matter where you hire from.
  India tech workers are cheap because they suck.

  Parent