Tata Motors partners with what3words for simplified last-mile navigation on its vehicles

Team OD Updated: September 18, 2019, 10:41 AM IST

Tata Motors has announced a partnership with what3words, a technology provider that allows the user to input a navigation location in three words to help simplify the process. These addresses can be entered by voice or text input, and then the user can navigate to the accurate address within three meters of the destination location.

The company claims this tech is quite relevant in the Indian context where addresses are non-standard and complex network of roads make it difficult for last-mile navigation. There are varying regional address formats across the country, there are oft unnamed streets and localities coupled with more often than not buildings with no numbers, further compound this problem. To solve this real-world issue, what3words has taken the entire world, divided it into 3mx3m squares, and assigned each square a unique identifier made of three random words. For example, Gateway of India can be found at ///holiday.surpises.design.

These words can be entered into the car's navigation system and similar combinations are located far apart to avoid confusion.  The what3words system is available in 36 languages, including 5 Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi and will be available on future Tata Motors vehicles