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Niantic partners with Vantor on drone positioning, denies defense use

6/13/2026

Summary

Niantic Partners Vantor

Niantic announced a December 2025 partnership with Vantor to develop a visual positioning system for drones and robots.
Niantic Spatial said the early-stage deal does not share Pokémon GO data with Vantor.
Reports allege that over 30 billion scans trained the system, which Niantic and Vantor deny is used in defense hardware.
An optional AR scanning feature in Pokémon GO was removed earlier this month after the Scopely takeover.

Summary

Niantic Trains Model

Niantic Spatial spun out in May 2025 after selling Pokémon Go to Scopely.
The firm will train a large geospatial model using short-video ground scans from Pokémon Go players and Scaniverse users, each with location and phone orientation data.
By early 2026 the model processed roughly 30 billion images, mainly urban scenes under varied lighting.
A spokesperson said the AI models are derived from training, not copies of scans, per the 2019 privacy policy.

Summary

Vantor Wins Award

Vantor, renamed from Maxar Intelligence on Oct 1 2025, won a $70 million follow-on award from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
The award funds a partnership that blends Vantor’s 3D data with Niantic Spatial’s Visual Positioning System for GPS-denied.
Over 400,000 government users are expected to benefit from the system in jammed or spoofed conditions.
Saudi-backed Savvy Games Group bought Niantic’s Pokémon GO division for $3.5 billion in 2025, separating it from Niantic Spatial’s business.

Summary

Digital Rights Decry

The deal letting militaries exploit civilian-collected data has drawn criticism from digital-rights advocates.
Tom Sulston of Digital Rights Watch called the practice troubling.
Rob Nicholls of the University of Sydney warned it mirrors the Strava case that revealed military sites.
Regulators are urged to apply user-interest and fairness tests.
Vantor’s February U.S. Army contract worth up to US$217 million for training software shows defense spending on civilian-derived AI.

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Niantic Partners Vantor

Niantic announced a December 2025 partnership with Vantor to develop a visual positioning system for drones and robots.
Niantic Spatial said the early-stage deal does not share Pokémon GO data with Vantor.
Reports allege that over 30 billion scans trained the system, which Niantic and Vantor deny is used in defense hardware.
An optional AR scanning feature in Pokémon GO was removed earlier this month after the Scopely takeover.

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