This one would likely have sneaked by without notice. My thanks to Bill for picking up on it. But the recent $15.3 billion proposed acquisition of Mobileye by Intel has huge geospatial implications.

Fascinating Intel to acquire Mobileye .. geospatial implications are huge

What we have here is ‘data features scraped from the streetscape continuously with passing autonomous cars’. Imagine the amount of data which will be collected. What to do with all that data will be the next key question. This is something wireless carriers are already wrestling with. A gold mine of data.

Geospatial experts step forward.

What might we do with this data in our existing geospatial (GIS) stacks? New geospatial tech is also being built to leverage these new data sources.

Finding data was once our big challenge. Post Google Maps free data was everywhere. Its real value forgotten. We are about to be buried in data. Its value once again realised. The question is geospatial professional; now you are front and centre: how are you going to manage this onslaught of data in real time? What are you gonna do with all this data to improve how we live and work?

No pressure!

I’ll finish with Bill’s comment: New Chinese proverb ….  “May you work in an interesting field”

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Author: Matt Sheehan

Matt Sheehan is a Principal at WebMapSolutions. Matt evangelizes GIS and location intelligence around the world through keynotes, articles, tweets and his books. Follow him on Twitter: