Driving in Saudi Arabia takes local knowledge: Cities run on wide, fast highways where exits stack close together and left turns are made by U-turn. A driver caught in the wrong lane can lose half an hour to Riyadh traffic. Standard maps are of little help when the capital redraws itself weekly, with closures and new interchanges outpacing the Big Tech cartographers. Hudhud, a Saudi navigation app, was built as a local insider’s guide to help drivers through otherwise poorly mapped cities.
Its camera cars photograph streets every few meters, reaching roads and towns that others haven’t. The app’s guidance runs lane by lane, with countdowns to roadworks, speed bumps, and cameras. Launched in Riyadh, it now covers the kingdom and has, among other things, steered pilgrims through Mecca’s historical sites. Aptly, the service is named after the hoopoe bird that features in the Quran, scouting for Solomon and returning with news of a land he did not know.