Apple Maps Vehicles Begin Surveying England, Coming to New Orleans Next Month

[Dr McKay]

Might hang a banner from my window saying "Hello Apple Maps!" or "Android < iOS" and see if I can spot it whenever Apple's version of street view goes live.

If you spot one just follow it for an entire day, wont be long before some tech blog is asking out "This mysterious car stalking an Apple Maps Van"

 

[doelcm82]

Wales does win the prize for the best flag though.

If you like dragons (and who doesn't).

 

[doelcm82]

In my travelling experience people have almost always heard of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and probably Edinburgh...

And Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire (where hurricanes hardly ever happen), though most have no idea where to find them on a map.

 

[KdParker]

What would count as surpassing? Teleporting you to any address you type in?

As long as the directions are correct, with traffic and alerts I am good. Which has been been the case for me with Apple maps.

 

[gnasher729]

Theres a heck of a lot of catch up work to do..

Not really. United Kingdom has about 400,000 miles of roads. A driver and co-pilot can easily to 20,000 miles a year. That's 20 full time employees for a year.

If you think that's a long time, consider that all the street photos that Google has today are one year old and often very outdated when that year is over, so Google has to do exactly the same work.

No. When Apple scraps it's terrible mapping initiative that will never catch up and gives users control of mapping API providers that will be a cause for celebration. That they're going to make a 10% working solution 12% working is a cause for abject misery because it means they're throwing away more resource on a failed project.

In the United Kingdom, I'd say that Apple Maps is doing quite well compared to Google Maps. Each one is ahead in some areas, so for planning a recent holiday in an area that I don't know at all I used both side by side, but Apple Maps was certainly ahead in some areas.

Apart from that, the locations that you read about in the UK were the ones planned for July. I'm sure they will go to different places in August, and in September, and so on, and Google must make the exact same investment not to fall behind. You know, maps are not just a matter of "catching up". Maps are an area where you can lose the lead very quickly, and Google has already done that in some areas.

 

[Planey28]

And Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire (where hurricanes hardly ever happen), though most have no idea where to find them on a map.

+ Birmingham, Nottingham (Robin Hood land)...

 

[doelcm82]

+ Birmingham, Nottingham (Robin Hood land)...

• The Forest of Dean where Harry and his pals hid out from You Know Who.
• Salisbury, where they have no idea what Salisbury Steak is.
• Stonehenge, a pile of rocks from National Lampoon's European Vacation and an episode of Doctor Who.
• Worcester, home of Worcester sauce (which Americans call Worcestershire sauce, because no one can pronounce it anyway unless they live in Massachusetts).

 

[RedTomato]

• The Forest of Dean where Harry and his pals hid out from You Know Who.
• Salisbury, where they have no idea what Salisbury Steak is.
• Stonehenge, a pile of rocks from National Lampoon's European Vacation and an episode of Doctor Who.
• Worcester, home of Worcester sauce (which Americans call Worcestershire sauce, because no one can pronounce it anyway unless they live in Massachusetts).

+ Cornwall, where a field of corn grows next to a wall, whence one Bonnie Prince Charlie hid out in the '45 rebellion.

 

[Tobias Funke]

But still no motorway junction numbers on maps Apple!!!

 

[anthonylambert]

Solihull, England, approximately two hours northwest of London.
or 20 minutes southeast of Birmingham. Why does the whole of the UK have be referenced from London??

Because they are still selling the Apple ][ in Solihull and some people may of at least have some idea we're London is, if were lucky?

 

[vr00n]

So i'm thinking that this is a clever ruse for an eventual Apple driverless car. Sure it improves apple maps but definitely looks like the vans have got much more going on than simple street view gear.

Im seeing lidar and other optical sensors on this rig which leads me to believe that this is much more than just apple maps .... anyone...?

The alleged Lidar in above image sure looks similar to Velodyne's HDL-32E (recently acquired by Ford)

 

[vikingjunior]

Stop and just give us Google Maps default!

 

[Mercifull]

So i'm thinking that this is a clever ruse for an eventual Apple driverless car. Sure it improves apple maps but definitely looks like the vans have got much more going on than simple street view gear.

Im seeing lidar and other optical sensors on this rig which leads me to believe that this is much more than just apple maps .... anyone...?

View attachment 645972

The alleged Lidar in above image sure looks similar to Velodyne's HDL-32E (recently acquired by Ford)
View attachment 645971

The thing on the tyres is a wheel encoder which gives more accurate "ground truth" mixed in with the GPS etc for more accurate mapping of roads.