As our fleet of chattering dashboards inform us every mile or so, we’ve reached a point where just about every roadway, junction and street sign in the developed world has been carefully plotted on a map and uploaded into a satellite navigation device. And yet, the task of mapping the planet is not nearly done.

Multimap, the London-based digital mapping specialist that was acquired last week by Microsoft, announced recently they were forging into China. They’ve added street-level detail on 150 Chinese cities already, which are now accessible on the web and sat-nav devices. “India is next,” Sean Phelan, Multimap’s founder, told me, adding that the race to map (with corresponding satellite footage) the remaining uncharted territories of the world – primarily, parts of Africa, Asia and South America – continues for digital map makers.

“The way I see it, we are maybe halfway through long-term change. Twenty-five years ago, there were solely maps on paper. Twenty-five years from now, there will be solely maps on screens,” Mr Phelan predicts.

Back in Western Europe and North America, almost every city and town, and certainly every highway, is on the map, so to speak. “Now it’s a question of filling in some of the distant places, the villages,” Mr Phelan says. “The competitive environment is around the quality of information given for each place. The context. Is this an interesting place or dull? Is it safe or dangerous?”

Driving around Rome, where I’m based, I’m not so sure I’d want the sweet sounding sat-nav announcer rattling off the latest Italian traffic fatality statistics, but if it would convince reckless Roman motorists to drive with a bit more prudenza, I’d welcome it.

It may be a while before we see crime and roadway statistics plugged into digital maps, however. Still, digital maps are becoming smarter all the time. For example, Multimap has a deal with Wikipedia whereby the user-informed encyclopedia provides historical details about famous landmarks – from the height of Big Ben to the area of the Aurelian Wall – along the route.

The map-makers will also be interested in more mundane details. Diners’ reviews detailing the ‘best’ pizza and the ‘best’ shepherd’s pie served up at restaurants along the route will be welcomed as the maps are transformed into Web 2.0 navigation services.

Mr Phelan says a few years ago the holy grail of digital cartography was to develop real-time roadway updates. But with the success of Web 2.0, the thinking has moved a step beyond to something he calls “collaborative cartography”. The ideas is that users themselves will be able to correct those nagging moments when the navigator unhelpfully instructs the driver, as he or she approaches a junction, to turn right when the traffic only permits you to turn left. “Think of a ‘click and learn’ function. You just tap the screen and correct the program,” he says.

Mr Phelan takes the example a step further. The mapping software should learn from motorists’ actions too. “If 3,000 cars drive up to a junction and all go left it’s probably the case where it’s a ‘no right turn’,” he says. “But that is really early days”.

Mr Phelan points to the work being done by OpenStreeMap to create, wiki-style, the definitive driver-edited, globe-spanning road map, one that covers all the latest traffic flow changes, as testament to the importance of collaboration. He adds it will be a combination of data compiled by professional cartographers for accuracy and ordinary travelers, who’ve been down this road before, for context to make the maps more practical.

“I would hope that the ambulance driver who is rushing me to the hospital is using mapping detail that comes from the pros,” Mr Phelan points out.

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Bernhard Warner, a freelance journalist and media consultant, writes about technology, the internet and media industries. He can be reached at techscribe@gmail.com