Lyft Uses Solana's Bee Maps to Crowdsource Real-Time Map Updates
Lyft Uses Solana's Hivemapper to Crowdsource Real-Time Map Updates
The move highlights the growing importance of crowdsourced geospatial intelligence in the transportation sector.
Margot Nijkerk, AI Boost | Edited by Steven Alpher Updated May 14, 2025, 4:03 PM Published May 14, 2025, 3:00 PM
Key points:
- Bee Maps, based on Hivemapper, one of the largest decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) focused on mapping data on the Solana platform, announced on Wednesday its partnership with taxi giant Lyft to provide more accurate mapping information.
- The move highlights the growing role of crowdsourced geospatial intelligence in transportation.
Bee Maps, a project based on Hivemapper, one of the largest decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) platforms focused on mapping data on Solana, announced on Wednesday its collaboration with Lyft to provide more accurate mapping data.
The move highlights the growing importance of crowdsourced geospatial intelligence in the transportation industry and indicates that ride-sharing companies are turning to this type of infrastructure to improve the quality of maps.
Hivemapper empowers drivers to contribute to mapping using AI-powered dash cams that automatically detect and update real-time road changes, such as construction zones or changed road signs, to help keep digital maps current and accurate.
“For mobility to truly work and for autonomous technology to become a reality, maps can’t be an afterthought — they must be crowdsourced, dynamic, accurate, and open,” said Ariel Seidman, CEO and co-founder of Bee Maps, in a press release to CoinDesk. “We’re proud to support a true innovator like Lyft with the continuously updated, street-level spatial intelligence that powers their vision.”
Bee Maps is an app built on the Hivemapper network, which is part of the growing DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) movement that uses blockchain incentives to crowdsource the development of real infrastructure. In the case of Bee Maps, participants are rewarded in cryptocurrency for collecting street images using Hivemapper cameras. This data is processed using AI to extract important features such as road signs, lane markings, and construction zones, which are constantly updated on the platform.
Lyft's move to Bee Maps comes after NATIX, another DePIN mapping project in Solana, announced a partnership with ride-hailing service Grab to offer more advanced mapping technology.
Read more: Solana's Natix and Grab team up to expand DePIN coverage in the US and Europe
FIX (May 14, 2025, 16:02 UTC): Clarified the relationship between Bee Maps and Hivemapper throughout the article, and changed the title to reflect that Lyft used Hivemapper, not Bee Maps.
