Overview
- Niantic Spatial announced a partnership with Coco Robotics to deploy its Visual Positioning System for sidewalk deliveries in the United States and Europe.
- The system draws on more than 30 billion images captured by players since 2016, converted into 3D maps using photogrammetry.
- Niantic says its VPS provides centimeter-level positioning that can outperform GPS in dense urban areas to improve navigation and drop-off accuracy.
- Coco’s robots will rely on onboard cameras with the VPS for real-time recognition and will keep collecting imagery to refine the models.
- Niantic states images are processed anonymously, yet Pokémon Go’s terms indicate integrated images cannot be deleted, raising privacy and consent concerns; Coco is reported to be backed by Sam Altman.