I mostly use Here maps as you can download the area you want/need and get offline directions ( great for us with limited data plans).
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Apple Begins Surveying Spain With Mapping Vehicles
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Like it really matters???
Certainly less tacky than the Google Street View vehicles.:
At least it doesn't look like a soccer mom's car.
Let me guess Apple maps hasn't dumped you into an ocean or taken you the wrong way yet so it's the bestest ever?
Like it really matters???
Certainly less tacky than the Google Street View vehicles.:
No, Apple is using a POS Chrysler/Dodge Minivan that lacks branding.
Google is building brand awareness. When you see them going down the road you go "Guess Google is working to fix it" rather than knowing nothing. I'd rather know they are working on making it better (Google's approach) than Apples incognito approach.
I'm sorry, please explain how the outward appearance of the vehicle carrying the imaging equipment effects the accuracy of the maps they are working on. I wouldn't know how accurate Apple Maps is in my area -- I use a Garmin. I really couldn't care less what the vehicle that's carrying the gear looks like. I don't get personally escorted to my destination by the damn thing. I'm more interested in the results of their trips.
1) Apple doesn't need to "build brand awareness". They are already pretty well known.
2) Some people are hostile towards these kind of street-level mapping activities because of the perceived invasion of their privacy (while they are walking around in public, lol). Having your vehicle identified as the "Google Maps car" is likely the kind of thing that attracts rude hand gestures from passerbys or folks following the vehicles because they want to get captured in the images for "Look, ma!" fame, that kind of thing. Being low-key will give more consistent results.
Google's branding of their cars almost feels like an attempt to normalize the idea of surveillance in some ways. Maybe if I was deluded into being a corporate cheerleader I'd care how often people think about Apple's as a brand. Fortunately, I have my own life to live.
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I had the same experience last summer when we drove from the UK to Spain. Give up on Apple Maps as it was simply wrong.
Apple Maps is ok in the US (okay, in the sense that you will 'probably' make it to your destination at least 80% of the time.)
I still don't dare risk using Apple Maps to go to an unknown destination. Personally, I doubt Apple will every catch up to Google in our lifetime.
I still don't dare risk using Apple Maps to go to an unknown destination. Personally, I doubt Apple will every catch up to Google in our lifetime.
I think he's just speaking of his experience.
Are you really looking for a Macrumors poster to have a "control group?" Really?
Yeah - hope they don't miss out Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland! I went on holiday to West Wales, and had a hire car, with a fancy Apple Car Kit installed. It was cool how it hooked up to my iPhone, and took travel instructions via Siri. It was a pain though because it would only allow me to use Apple Maps, not Google Maps. It's still not as good, and I would always still go for Google Maps if I had the choice.
We'll remember Apple haters posting the same old images again and again.
Everyone typing "Hoover Dam" into Maps finds out within ten seconds that your post is absolute nonsense.
Ever hear of FLYOVERS?
me either! lol - remember those Apple Apologists that defended flyovers as being sooooo useful and BETTER than street view?!
If you want to bash Apple, you should at least make more of an effort. This photo has nothing to do with flyover
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"80%" "Never catch up in my lifetime." LOL.
I travel all over the country and need to be able to count on the directions I'm getting, and after Apple's disaster of a roll out with Maps, I quickly rejected it and went back to my Garmin and occasional Google Maps. However, I kept testing it out by running it side by side. Over the past 4.5 years Apple has made such progress that I have finally put away my Garmin and can comfortably say that it meets or exceeds Google Maps in accuracy, and betters it with its UI and obviously blows it away as far as protecting my privacy. Where Google Maps is still superior is in three features: lane assist, speed limit display and in overall searching. ( In iOS11 Apple is addressing the first two!)
The neat thing about mapping apps is that they are free, and only take a minute or two to download. Since consumers wouldn't obviously keep using an app that didn't meet their needs, e.g., if AM was as inaccurate as you allege, myself and other consumers would use GM or other free app, consumer behavior gives us some important empirical data, so what does it tell us about AM versus GM? Well, as AM has steadily improved, consumers have steadily increased their use of AM to the point where three years after its introduction, it had improved so much and grown so popular that in 2015 it was being used over 5 BILLION, yes that's the big B, times a week, and was being used exponentially (3x) more than GM. Since 2015 Apple has made even more improvements, and it has to be on list of Google's many worries that Apple may release next year a version of AM for Android that will enable Android users who worry about privacy to make the switch.
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I've been in cars who tried to follow the vehicles, to be on the map. Only to find out they've been blurred out and ended in disappointment
The Distortion Reality Field is strong with this one. LOL
Let me help you navigate the propaganda mine field.
You claim Apple Maps is used 3x as much as Google Maps. (But didn't state that this is only on iOS devices or that your data is from 2015, nor did you state that Apple considers 'use' as someone using Siri to try and search for a place (only to be let down) or that simply downloading the app counts as use. Even if the app doesn't get used by someone, simply opening the app for 1 second counts. Apple doesn't make any distinctions to help hide the fact that. And if Apple Maps is so great, in your opinion, why is Google Maps still ranked 5th on Apple's app store? Why are so many Apple users still downloading it, considering it isn't even capable of being used with Siri or made as the default maps app? Might it be because Apple Maps still sucks compared to it?
Oh and here's your article to help ensure you don't b.s. other readers: https://9to5mac.com/2015/12/07/apple-maps-usage-numbers/
Sure they do. They have a product that is perceived by most to be inferior. The easiest way to fix that is have them out there visibly 'working on improving' the maps. That builds the awareness that Apple is working on it and would make you more likely to try it in the future.
I'd rather it identify with Google than some nondescript government looking car. You're going to get the same gesture whether it's Google or the government is "spying" on you.
Ever hear of FLYOVERS?
me either! lol - remember those Apple Apologists that defended flyovers as being sooooo useful and BETTER than street view?!
If you were trying to boast Google Maps, you choose a poor example...
Yeah, those flyover issues were fixed years ago. Just a software patch.If you were trying to boast Google Maps, you choose a poor example...
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But flyover is no substitute for street view and never will be. In fact, flyover is pretty much a useless feature.
I didn't know that. I always thought of it as something used to build highly detailed topographic maps during surveying, but I can see how it could be used in other ways.
bash apple? I love apple
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Exactly.
Where are those flyover lovers now?
I want to meet a user that uses flyovers often.
I agree with your surprising admission that you are attempting to distort reality. The reality is that Apple Maps is being used many billions of times a week, and given a choice, Apple users have been choosing it in ever greater numbers to the point where it is used exponentially more than Google Maps. That reality is out there, regardless how much it hurts your feelings.
Steve Jobs would blush at your effort to dismiss that by suggesting that it is merely people opening the App for a second and then closing it. Yes, you gave us all a chuckle to suggest that iPhone users have some sort of nervous tic that causes them to open and close an app billions of times a week.
But you caused a massive SMH on the forums when you had to resort to making up other desperately silly things like the billions of uses a week can be explained away as "downloading Apple Maps" counts as a use. Of course downloads are a different metric than use, but aside from that fact, when you were sitting at your computer making things up, your frustration with the truth must have been so complete that you didn't stop to consider that Apple Maps is pre-loaded on devices and doesn't need to be downloaded. OOPS! OUCH! Better get some help for that wound.
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It doesn't have to be used often to be a great feature. Witness, after Apple came out with it, Google soon released something to try and compete with it. It's not something that I use often, except when visiting a new place, it's great to do a flyover. There are professional photographers, etc., who swear by it for checking out possible outdoor locations, but where Apple is also heading with this is a "sky to ground" capability in Apple Maps that will blow your mind. You will start in the sky and can smoothly/seamlessly move down to any level. Street view has it's uses, but is extremely clunky to use and is mainly useful for checking out the front of buildings. Imagine a true zooming in and out of city streets. Apple has been building its own base map and is supposed to be finished next year. Stand by for some cool stuff.
That sounds neat but photos of actual store fronts and streets are far more useful than 3D images of buildings.
Unless apple directly copies Google on this im going to stay a Google Maps user.
LiDAR is great, but it is not the sensor that is capturing imagery as the original news article suggests, it captures a point cloud (vector data). Used this way I can see a few possibilities. It may be related to their autonomous vehicle technology but more likely it's related to 3D mapping. With the point cloud they should be able to better place building textures when rendering a 3D map.
I submit the idea that they are building not just street view, but a true 3D rendering of the street you are driving down.