Ride-share service Lyft has been working to improve its mapping system to help increases driver earnings and boost the customer experience.

According to Fast Company, in 2021, Lyft released mapping platform LyftNav to help drivers focus on the road and make it easier for riders to be picked up. As of January, 50% to 60% of Lyft drivers were using LyftNav. 

“We really wanted to innovate for [drivers] to make sure that the product was pretty simple to use and glanceable, so you didn’t have to get distracted by trying to figure out the details you need,” Dylan Lorimer, Lyft’s chief product officer, told Fast Company. 

To improve the LyftNav platform, Lyft has been testing road-facing dash cameras to capture images for their maps. The company is also experimenting to improve audio guidance, as well as considering adding features to improve the customer experience by providing suggestions to riders on where to wait for their driver to avoid congestion.

“When it comes to ride-share, we have very specific goals around providing voice guidance to drivers that is simple but clear, because they’re doing this all day every day, so (we) remove distractions and invest in sort of the specifics and make the experience as intuitive and elegant and ergonomic as possible,” Lorimer told Fast Company.

Last November, Lyft announced that the company was implementing cost-cutting measures to prepare for a probable recession and rising ride-share insurance costs.