The hi-tech car on a mission to map out Hong Kong as part of smart city bid

Data collected will help in government work and land surveys, including creating 3D maps of the urban landscape and terrain

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Land surveyors, Ng Wai-wang (left) and Eddie Ho with the vehicle used to map out Hong Kong’s roads. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 9:01am, 30 Apr 2018Updated: 9:01am, 30 Apr 2018

A slow-moving white SUV which costs HK$5 million has covered more than 200km of Hong Kong’s roads since December, collecting 400,000 panoramic images on its mission to map out the city.

But the vehicle does not belong to internet search giant Google, known for its use of a similar method to gather data for online maps. The car is a new acquisition by the local government in efforts to create a smart city.

Fitted with the latest mobile mapping technology, the vehicle can scan the environment and record the city’s physical features while on the move, collecting crucial spatial data.

Scanning systems are mounted on the car. Photo: Winson Wong

It is part of plans by authorities to map out the whole of Hong Kong, prioritising urban areas and large infrastructure projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge. The car, together with other traditional equipment, will contribute vast amounts of data key to the government’s ambition to become a world-class smart city by 2021.

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“The good thing about the car is that it collects all sorts of complex data quickly, efficiently and accurately – from anything as minute as the real distance between drainage covers to the height of lamp posts,” Lands Department land surveyor Eddie Ho Chi-ho said.