OpenStreetMap
Any way to contribute while learning to drive Car?
Posted by soumendrak on 26 October 2025 in English.My morning walks got replaced by Car driving lessons.
I turn on my GPS and go for driving and after returning I upload the traces to OSM.
I am wondering other than uploading the GPS traces, is there any other way I can utilize my local knowledge to contribute to OSM.
Discussion
Comment from fortera_au on 26 October 2025 at 22:33
If you happen to remember things when out and about on driving lessons, then feel free to contribute those findings to OSM, but I wouldn’t focus on that over learning to drive. If you’re stopping and have a chance to write things down then go for it, but while you’re driving, focus on that first!
The GPX traces definitely can be useful, and those mostly just involve enabling it before driving and ending it afterwards, so that’s definitely going to be easy enough to do.
Once you’re comfortable enough driving and (assuming your country’s learner period is anything like mine) just trying to get enough experience and sit through any required time periods, you could (if it’s legal) have an OSM based map application running while you drive. If you do find any discrepancies between the two, you can note those down (if safe to do so) and fix those once you’re back home.
Comment from TronnaLegacy on 28 October 2025 at 23:17
Be careful while driving to not get distracted by OSM! When you’re just starting to learn how to drive, that should be the only thing you do in my opinion.
You could start doing OSM while driving after you have some experience. I know one way people driving can contribute is with Mapillary, creating and uploading street level imagery. You could try doing that after.
Comment from soumendrak on 31 October 2025 at 03:32
@Sharko_J Thanks for the suggestion! I appreciate it, but I think even taking notes or clicking photos might be a bit much for me right now; I’m still at that stage where I need all my focus just on the basics of driving itself. Maybe once I’m more comfortable I could try that approach. Which apps do you recommend, I use Every Door and Street Complete regularly, but not sure how those apply here?
@kofera_au I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all this! Honestly, I was getting a bit ahead of myself. Safety should definitely come first. I don’t want to be that person who causes an accident because they were thinking about map edits 😅 I love the idea of just running GPS traces during lessons; that’s completely passive and I can still feel like I’m helping. Everything else can wait until I’m actually confident behind the wheel. Thanks for the reality check and the encouragement!
@Troenal.epoav Thanks. Yeah, I need to focus on actually learning to drive first before I worry about contributing. The Mapillary idea sounds really cool though, definitely something to try once I’ve got some proper experience and aren’t a nervous wreck every time I get in the car 😊 For now, GPS traces it is!