Why Facebook Acquired the Swedish Startup Mapillary?
Facebook’s second acquisition of a computer vision startup in 2020.
Last Thursday, Mapillary CEO Jan Erik Solem announced on the company blog that Mapillary has joined Facebook to be part of their open mapping efforts. The terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed yet.
For those who don’t know Mapillary, It’s a Swedish startup that was created in 2013, has created a crowdsourced database of street-level imagery. By using computer vision and deep learning technologies, they were able to detect object types as point features on maps.
In April, the company passed the milestone of 500 million images uploaded. Mapillary’s database is being used by the Toyota Research Institute to benchmark and fine-tune its autonomous driving algorithms. And the American Red Cross is using Mapillary to gather information and images to better coordinate disaster response efforts.
Solem pointed in his post that “Facebook is building tools and technology to improve maps through a combination of machine learning, satellite imagery and partnerships with mapping communities, as part of their mission to bring the world closer together.” referring to Google Data For Good team that released multiple projects such as:
This acquisition also can be linked to the Facebook Acquisition of Scape, a computer vision startup working on location accuracy beyond the capabilities of GPS, back in February.
Finally, Facebook plans are not yet known as a Facebook spokesperson provided the following statement before: “We acquire smaller tech companies from time to time. We don’t always discuss our plans.”
