I'm happy to see so many upvotes on this despite it being an inconvenient truth. The fact is, Google has an unbeatable system in place for keeping their maps accurate and up to date. It is not perfect but it is much closer to perfection than anything else available. There are lots of anecdotes about people having no issues with it but if you are using a map to get you somewhere important on time, why would you not use the map with a statistically higher chance of getting you to the right place?
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Apple's Maps App Directs Alaska Drivers onto Airport Taxiway
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I'm happy to see so many upvotes on this despite it being an inconvenient truth. The fact is, Google has an unbeatable system in place for keeping their maps accurate and up to date. It is not perfect but it is much closer to perfection than anything else available. There are lots of anecdotes about people having no issues with it but if you are using a map to get you somewhere important on time, why would you not use the map with a statistically higher chance of getting you to the right place?
I don't get why people think Google Maps is infallible... because it isn't. Far from it. I've had Google Maps want me to turn into oncoming traffic or turn into roads that don't exist that would end in me driving over a cliff, or simply being flat out wrong about the location being 20-30 miles off course. You really have to use your head when using a GPS. You need to pay attention and not rely solely on an infallible system without any regard to your safety. Every single GPS available has issues ... and will probably continue having issues for years to come. There are places in which Apple Maps is more accurate than GMaps and vice versa. I also use TomTom, Waze, and a good ol' paper map booklet. The whole which GPS is superior debate is getting tiresome. I use several GPS apps because they all suck with accuracy at some point.
When some stupid error like the one in the OP is brought up, it's over-exaggerated beyond belief. I think the bigger problem than the GPS inaccuracy is the idiots who built the airport don't have that area gated off. Also, I've had a LOT of freaking issues with GMaps directing me to wrong parking terminals at airports, among other things.
All the GPS apps have issues. Use them with care and pay attention so you don't get into some horrific accident from their intermittent failings.
ok fair enough with those links. I cant find any links here in krakow, Poland tho. I am trying! Guess they will come here soon enough.
That's quite a claim and contradictory to their hiring lots of people to fix the problems in the app - so, care to back that up with any concrete evidence? And as one person on here states, Google maps had errors for years, though probably not as big as this major metropolitan oriented error in this story. ;-)
Google Earth does the same thing!!
and now guess what, all you smartasses, Google Earth does the same thing:
When picking the blue airport sign as destination which says Fairbanks International Airport, Google Earth leads you exactly on the same taxiway like Apple Maps! Stops short of the finish line. How about that?
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and now guess what, all you smartasses, Google Earth does the same thing:
When picking the blue airport sign as destination which says Fairbanks International Airport, Google Earth leads you exactly on the same taxiway like Apple Maps! Stops short of the finish line. How about that?
How about reading the article? They had to go to the attorney general to get Apple's attention. Then Apple said it was fixed when it wasn't. Only then did they have to go to the press and now Apple says it will be fixed in a few days all of the sudden.
Sorry to argue. It is the same here with me. My street is mapped wrong in Apple maps. Whenever folks come to visit me for the first time I tell them to use Google maps, othervise they get guided 10 km away. And I live close to Frankfurt Germany, not in the Australian Outback.
Reported it about 20 times in the past year to Apple in any possible way. They just don't listen so it seems.
Searching "LL22", which is a local Airport Park in the Chicago area gives you instead a street in Germany...
While that's entirely anecdotal, is there any chance we think they might be addressing these as fast as they can, and logically that they might have prioritised them on some criteria (which should have nothing whatsoever to do with which ones are the most journalistically salacious and appear in these moronic articles)?
To suggest they are refusing to fix them unless they appear in an article is just plain silly, but what it would mean is that the issue with your street get addressed for awhile, what with problems like the Alaskan airport diversion jumping to the top of the queue. Perhaps you ought to do something to attract sensationalist journalists to write about your street - report a UFO sighting or have your neighbours all claim to have seen ghosts on your street abducting children, at least you might get your bug bumped higher up in the queue.
The problem is that many hang onto the fact that it originally had lots of problems (of which many were gone by the time it was out of beta). And it's a year later and things have mostly been better and now it's just bugs (it's not news).
Again, Garmin wouldn't get the same news coverage if they had a map bug.
Gary
So they removed the offending instructions and broke it again by having no directions to the airport itself?
The incompetence here is astounding. Apple needs to eat their losses and grovel back to Google to get their data. They don't have what it takes to run a mapping business.
The incompetence here is astounding. Apple needs to eat their losses and grovel back to Google to get their data. They don't have what it takes to run a mapping business.
I don't think anyone said that Google maps were infallible. What is amusing is the all out defense of Apple maps. If Google maps had this same flaw, Google would be idiots. Apple maps has the flaw, the user is the idiot. And so it goes for just about any negative story about Apple. The end user is responsible for their own mistakes, and Apple is responsible for their mistakes, but many seem to have a hard time criticizing Apple at all. The blame is always deflected somewhere else.
News Flash: Drivers sometimes make wrong turns.
Seriously, since when does a GPS replace the need for basic driving skills and directional competency? Maybe I'm just an old fart, but I drove all over the planet long before I had a GPS and yup, sometimes, I made a wrong turn. Met a lot of interesting, helpful people doing that as well as experienced some rather seedy parts of major cities.
Crap happens. Make a three-point turn and get on about your day.
Really can't understand the hub-ub around this "issue" for anyone other than a whining moron. I am, however, starting to understand that once the apocalypse hits, I'm far better prepared than the Millennial generation to survive without electronics. So yay me.
I think the post you referred to just wanted to say it takes too long for Apple to respond to reported errors. I don't mind if it takes a few weeks to correct my error on a map, but I reported the error a year ago and nothing happened. If a crucial error appears it should get fixed as soon as possible.
No doubt about it, adopting the attitude that Apple can do no wrong is about the most dangerous thing that can happen to Apple, and I certainly hope that Apple's mapping department takes a much more critical approach to this problem than some posters here.
Having said that, as others have posted, we should take all GPS instructions with a grain of salt, and use common sense when following GPS directions.
Have long since stopped using Apple Maps here in UK since it is so bad. I gave it a try after loading iOS 7, since reports said it has been improved - what a joke!
I set it for a route I regularly take to a major city 54 miles away, started off and it kept trying to take me miles away in the opposite direction and would not change route to follow my direction for many miles.
Eventually it picked up my direction and was accurate from there. However, very little or no detail was showing either side of the route, except in larger urban areas, usually a screen full of squares (I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about).
Another feature I hate is that when coming up to changing directions/road junctions etc, unlike all other sat nav apps that I also have, you cannot touch the screen to move the map to see any possible changes of direction not yet in screen view. In this latest iteration they have at least allowed you to pivot the screen view that is visible, but you cannot move the route forwards at all, which is poor.
Having said this, I have 4 sat nav apps, none of which are 100% accurate and I use the particular one that recognises my destination address best. Horses for courses I guess. Unfortunately Apple Maps is still the worst by far.
I set it for a route I regularly take to a major city 54 miles away, started off and it kept trying to take me miles away in the opposite direction and would not change route to follow my direction for many miles.
Eventually it picked up my direction and was accurate from there. However, very little or no detail was showing either side of the route, except in larger urban areas, usually a screen full of squares (I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about).
Another feature I hate is that when coming up to changing directions/road junctions etc, unlike all other sat nav apps that I also have, you cannot touch the screen to move the map to see any possible changes of direction not yet in screen view. In this latest iteration they have at least allowed you to pivot the screen view that is visible, but you cannot move the route forwards at all, which is poor.
Having said this, I have 4 sat nav apps, none of which are 100% accurate and I use the particular one that recognises my destination address best. Horses for courses I guess. Unfortunately Apple Maps is still the worst by far.
I don't care how many people Apple has hired on the maps team, the system is still broke. I can report an issue with Google Maps and they let you view the status of that ticket and know when it is resolved. Reporting an issue with Apple Maps at this point just seems fruitless because you will never get a response and there's still a lot of errors that have yet to be addressed.
People have driven into rivers and lakes even in the days of standalone GPS. Heck, they even fished out two submerged cars in Oklahoma last week, suspected to have driven off a boat launch and into a lake 40+ years ago. They didn't have a GPS, and yet met unfortunate ends.