Inside Niantic’s audacious plan to scan the world

The robots are coming—and they’ll need a good map to get around, whether they’re delivering our packages, driving us around, or doing any of the myriad of other tasks robotic helpers may perform for us in the future. “Without spatial intelligence, your robot really can’t do what you want it to do,” says John Hanke, the former CEO of Niantic Spatial who transitioned into the role of the company’s executive chairman a week ago. “Your Roomba is operating just in your house. But as we’re about to start operating at city scale, we need these big, large-scale, shared, accurate representations of the world.” This week, Niantic is taking the next step towards building that map: The company is launching its new Scaniverse platform, which aims to give companies and individuals the tools to capture the world with phones, 360-degree cameras and drones, and then fuse that data into a massive 3D map that allows robots to navigate the world around us with centimeter-level accuracy. It’s a