Why does Uber map cities in hexagons?

transcript

Uber maps cities in hexagons. Not squares. Why? It comes down to one thing: how far away the neighbours are.

Take a square cell. It has 8 neighbours. But they sit at two distances. Sides close, corners further. A triangle is worse. 12 neighbours, three distances.

Now a hexagon. 6 neighbours. And every one is the same distance away.

So walk out step by step, and you get a near-circle. Three steps out: 37 cells, roughly round. So a radius search over-fetches less than a square of squares.

Uber measures supply and demand in hexagons. That's surge pricing. Average a cell with its 6 neighbours. Each one counts the same.

But here's the catch. Unlike squares, hexagons don't nest. Seven children only roughly cover their parent. So rolling counts up levels gets fuzzy at the edges.

Squares give you two neighbour distances. Hexagons give you one. That's the whole trick.

Full breakdown in the lecture.