Grab pilots high-accuracy GPS for drivers, delivery partners in Singapore
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Close to 250 drivers and delivery partners have been selected to take part in Grab’s pilot programme, which began in October, to bring greater positioning precision.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – Grab Singapore on Nov 11 announced the launch of a pilot programme to bring greater positioning precision to its drivers and delivery partners here.
The pilot, rolled out in collaboration with Oppo, Qualcomm Technologies and Swift Navigation, involves the use of “high-accuracy, lane-level GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning” to improve the GrabMaps navigation experience on participants’ Oppo mobile phones.
Close to 250 drivers and delivery partners have been selected to take part in the programme, which began in October, including about 60 participants who received Oppo N5 foldable phones sponsored by Grab and Oppo.
Each phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, which features technology that enhances position accuracy and connects to Swift Navigation’s Skylark Precise Positioning Service, which corrects GPS signal errors.
Skylark taps data from the Singapore Land Authority’s Singapore Satellite Positioning Reference Network, a nationwide GPS reference network that supports high-precision land surveying and other positioning applications.
Together, these technologies enable users to pinpoint their location with higher accuracy, improving navigation in GPS-challenging environments and facilitating smoother pickups and fewer cancellations.
Grab told The Straits Times that the pilot programme in Singapore will last until the end of the year, with plans to roll out the programme to other markets for another six to nine months thereafter.
Grab driver Santho Rudy Peter, who participated in the pilot, said location accuracy feels “much sharper and more stable”.
“In the past, GPS signals could get quite weak in the CBD (Central Business District), especially around tall buildings where the signal bounces around,” the 47-year-old added. With the roll-out of the pilot, “navigation updates happen almost instantaneously”, and he can get to pickup points “faster, with less guesswork”.
To address the issue of GPS blind spots underground, Grab has begun mapping basements and carparks across Singapore. As at November, the company has successfully mapped out basement carparks of hotels and shopping malls around the Marina Bay area.
Grab aims to fully map out carparks and basements in areas with higher traffic over the next three to six months, and will progressively cover more locations after that.
