Uber will start mapping Canberra's streets with its own version of the Google Street View cars to improve its ride-sharing app and pave the way for its new carpooling services.
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For the next few weeks drivers in a dozen camera-equipped cars will canvas the city, section by section, to collect imagery which will help improve their "underlying technology", Uber's head of maps Manik Gupta said.
"From the street imagery that is captured, we can extract information which helps us improve core elements of the Uber rider and driver experience, such as ideal pick-up and drop-off points, better routes, and calculating more accurate ETAs," Mr Gupta - who is a former Google Mapping executive - said.
"Examples of information we extract from imagery can include business names and addresses, locations, street names, and much more."
Mr Gupta said the data would help make suggested pick-up points and arrival times more accurate for users, and give drivers better in-app navigation, faster routes and more accurate drop-off locations.
"As maps have become more advanced, it may seem like we have all the information we need. But mapping for Uber purposes requires a more nuanced data set than what exists today," he said.
"For example, we don't need to know what ocean topography looks like, but we do need to be able to understand ideal pick-up and drop-off locations outside a building."
Uber's current technology is based on Google Maps, which is inaccurate by about 1.5 metres due to drifting tectonic plates.
Mr Gupta said the data Uber gathered would be kept in-house and would help them roll out new functionalities for their app, like UberPOOL and UberCOMMUTE.
Those services would reward drivers who picked up passengers along their daily routes.
The company was not gathering data to help roll out driverless cars, a spokesman for Uber said.
The company was trialling a fleet of self-driving cars in Tempe, Arizona, but took them off the road in March after one of the cars crashed.
Waymo, the Alphabet company formed from Google's self-driving project, also filed a lawsuit against Uber in February accusing a former engineer from taking intellectual property from Alphabet to his current company, Uber.
Uber has already mapped Adelaide, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sunshine Coast, Sydney and Toowoomba.
You can't request a ride in one of the mapping vehicles, as they're driven by an independent contractor along a set route.
Mick Deery is one of the drivers and said he was keen to become an UberX driver after his stint in the mapping cars.
"I don't mind driving and I was looking for full-time work Monday to Friday," he said.
Canberra was the first Australian city to legalise ride-sharing in 2015.
This week Uber hiked its minimum fare from $6 to 8 in Canberra to cover "operational costs".
