Chris Sheldrick CEO of What3Words Discusses Voice, Transportation, and a New Global Address System – Voicebot Podcast Ep 138
What3Words is introducing a novel global address taxonomy based on a grid system that segments the surface of the earth into 57 billion 3-meter squares. Each square is assigned a three-word location identifier in several languages. Organizations ranging from Mercedes-Benz and Tata Motors to the Mongolian Postal Service have all adopted What3Words as a simplified version of GPS and a more robust address system than current methods of building numbers and street names.
This seemingly small change can be transformational. Not every location has an address. Sometimes you really need to know the side or back entrance to a building and not the front where the street address points you. Emergency personnel might get called to a specific location in a park or even in the wilderness. This is the use case that prompted emergency services to adopt the solution in the UK. What3Words allows you to find a location based on precisely where you need to be rather than an address that is sometimes wrong, sometimes duplicated, and not available for all locations.
Chris Sheldrick was inspired to create What3Words to address the deficiencies of street addresses and even GPS. He learned this as a manager to musicians who often need to be places that have no address or arrive somewhere other than the front door. Chris earned a degree in Music from Kings College London / The Royal Academy of Music. He is CEO of What3Words which he co-founded in 2013. We discuss how What3Words is being applied today. The future of the technology in the transportation and hospitality industries and how it intersects with the rise of voice assistants.
Show Notes – Chris Sheldrick Interview
- Read about What3Words on Voicebot: Speechmatics and What3Words Debut New Voice Navigation API
- Follow What3Words on Twitter and the Web: What3Words.com @What3Words
- Follow Chris Sheldrick on Twitter: @ChrisSheldrick
- Find the 3 words associated with any global location: What3Words Location Lookup
You can listen to the podcast interview above, on Google or Apple Podcasts or most of the leading podcast players.
Follow @bretkinsella Follow @voicebotai
David Cannington Co-founder of Nuheara on Shaping the Hearables Market – Voicebot Podcast 137
Voice UX Today with Cathy Pearl of Google and Adva Levin from Pretzel Labs – Voicebot Podcast Ep 136
Voice Assistants in Healthcare with Nate Treloar and Teri Fisher – Voicebot Podcast Ep 135
