Apple Expands 'Maps Ground Truth' Hiring to Rest of the World

[MacRumors]

Apple has expanded its postings for Maps Ground Truth jobs to the rest of the world, after initially hiring for similar positions only in Australia. 'Ground Truth' refers to information collected on location versus data collected remotely, such as satellite imagery.

The jobs, for 'Maps Ground Truth Manager' positions, have been posted for the U.S., The Americas, Western Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East & Africa.

The Maps team is searching for a manager for the team responsible for regional map quality and ground truth in the U.S.. Each of our regional teams is responsible for the quality of our maps in their region. This team's responsibilities include:

o Testing new releases of map code and data around the U.S.
o Collecting ground truth data to allow for analysis of the impact of potential map code or data changes relative to known truth
o Utilizing local expertise to provide feedback about U.S.-specific mapping details
o Evaluating competing products in-region relative to our maps

As the manager of this team, you will be expected to drive all of this team's work, determine where and how to allocate resources, and clearly communicate test results and other feedback to teams in Cupertino. The U.S. regional team is also responsible for driving communication between engineering teams in Cupertino and our other regional teams, as well as evaluating new regional testing initiatives in close coordination with the rest of the Maps quality team before those initiatives are rolled out to the other regional teams.

Apple has been working to improve its maps after criticism led CEO Tim Cook to publicly apologize for issues customers had. Google's Maps app for iOS was downloaded more than 10 million times in two days after it became available several months after Apple's maps were released.

Article Link: Apple Expands 'Maps Ground Truth' Hiring to Rest of the World

 

[komodrone]

Will they dig up my buried lies?

 

[bawbac]

 

[maccompatible]

Awesome. I'd rather incomplete maps than inaccurate maps. Maybe this will fix both!

 

[Sayer]

Apple forgot an important rule when dealing with third-party data:

Trust, but verify.

This kind of thing should have been going on long before the Apple Maps app ever shipped.

 

[skellener]

Still wondering how committed Apple is to maps though. Only time will tell that.

Meanwhile, once Google has the autonomous cars legitimized (which is getting closer everyday), you can bet they'll never send out a manned Google Car again. Those things will be eventually be all electric and have their own tiny garages to charge overnight in every part of every major area and go out everyday and constantly be updating StreetView without anyone ever setting foot in one.

How's Apple's StreetView coming?

 

[basesloaded190]

Well said.

I think Apple needs to do a lot more than hire a few more people in order to get to Google's mapping level.

 

[Solomani]

This project should have already been in place 1 year ago.

 

[1member1]

I'm not sure about the maps app. also for google maps.
When there is waze and people who report every second on the traffic i can't see how other map solutions are getting in the picture besides for walking on foot.

I know waze is not the perfect solution everywhere but here it's a must.

 

[rmwebs]

Would it not make more sense to hire people in said countries? I.e have a team in the US who can cover North America, a team for South America, a team for Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australia, etc

Seems a bit silly trying to find people in one very small location to cover the world.

Also, why the hell is this being done now, and not 12 months ago? Apple you really do not have a clue when it comes to fixing something thats broken do you.

 

[Northgrove]

Yes, this is pretty backwards. OK, so now Apple needs to work five years on this ground mapping project for decent international coverage? I don't really think even 1-2 years is enough, especially with how Apple is handling it. Hiring "ground team" staff only now?? This is such a huge project. Google Maps has silently been brewing, fleshing out its database for eight years now (not counting the time before it was officially unveiled), and is still an alive database. That's the competiton.

 

[JayCee842]

A little too late...again.

----------

I had the same face expression.

 

[Solomani]

Well said.

I think Apple needs to do a lot more than hire a few more people in order to get to Google's mapping level.

Those hiring posting are for Managers. If you have any common sense at all, you'd figure that each Manager would be responsible for "managing" a bunch of employees working under them. So conceivably this might end up being several dozen to a few hundred "Ground Truth" employees under this single Apple project alone.

But I expected the Google fanboys to come and pour some salt in here anyways, as if it's some heinous crime for Apple (or anyone else) to work on improving their own mapping software. By the way, Android OS in its first year of existence sucked balls compared to iOS. Does that mean Google should have stopped improving it back then?

 

[r.j.s]

Will they dig up my buried lies?

The real question is whether the'll find Jimmy Hoffa or not.

 

[charlituna]

Apple forgot an important rule when dealing with third-party data:

Trust, but verify.

This kind of thing should have been going on long before the Apple Maps app ever shipped.

They didn't forget it. Part of their plan was for users to help with the verify part by highlighting issues. Just like Google and many other companies did and do

 

[Crzyrio]

Still wondering how committed Apple is to maps though. Only time will tell that.

Meanwhile, once Google has the autonomous cars legitimized (which is getting closer everyday), you can bet they'll never send out a manned Google Car again. Those things will be eventually be all electric and have their own tiny garages to charge overnight in every part of every major area and go out everyday and constantly be updating StreetView without anyone ever setting foot in one.

How's Apple's StreetView coming?

I am not sure what world you live in but that is VERY VERY far away lol.

I am 100% sure Google has the technology and it works amazingly, within a small area, but the infrastructure is just not there to support it. And There are just way to many variables to consider when every other car is manned.

 

[4TheLoveOfTech]

I am not sure what world you live in but that is VERY VERY far away lol.

I am 100% sure Google has the technology and it works amazingly, within a small area, but the infrastructure is just not there to support it. And There are just way to many variables to consider when every other car is manned.

Google has already got a license to have Driverless cars in Nevada. The catch right now is that 2 people have got to be in the car but it's already happening. Only a matter of time before states allow nobody in the car.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/07/tech/nevada-driveless-car

 

[nagromme]

This weekend, for the very first time* since the Maps switch, I actually had a need to go back to the Google app.

I wanted to use Street View to see the signs on buildings and find the right one.

Unfortunately....

a) Street View was completely blurry and shadowed and even enormous signs were unreadable on storefronts.

b) Google had the location completely wrong.

c) Compounded by the fact that getting around (reaching the CORRECT location manually) in Street View is an incredible pain compared to smoothly zipping around in Flyover. (Which, granted, puts you 50 feet in the air at best, but is still a great, immediately recognizable view of street in high detail. You can zoom in quite far in Flyover, and even read larger commercial signs.)

So I went back to Apple Maps and followed the route. Lo and behold, Apple has the location exactly right. The pin was in front of the exact building, and I didn't need a sign after all.

Some people have problems with Apple Maps, no doubt. We forget how often Google Maps has problems too.

* I do use Google for transit... but I do my destination search in Apple Maps because it has been easier and equally accurate. Then I hit the Transit button in Apple Maps which hands the query off to the Google app. Very painless: I get Google's transit results without having to deal with Google's painful searching... such as a failing to access my Address Book and Home locations, and failing to remember a search I just made 10 seconds ago! It's too bad, because Google IS the best at getting a badly-typed query right: I give full credit there.

 

[0029937]

I am not sure what world you live in but that is VERY VERY far away lol.

I am 100% sure Google has the technology and it works amazingly, within a small area, but the infrastructure is just not there to support it. And There are just way to many variables to consider when every other car is manned.

Too lazy to find sources but from what I've read on this type of technology(might have been a TED talk), this sort of thing isn't that far away at all. The only thing I see being a setback is regional governments permitting it. From what I remember Nevada was going to be or is the only state so far to allow it.

 

[Born Again]

The TRUTH Apple?

The TRUTH is your maps are subpar to Google Maps.

 

[Sandbag1]

Remember

Remember when Microsoft, I mean Micro$oft was the big guy on the block and all the wannabes liked to pick on them just because of their success?

Well, now it's Apple it seems.

 

[FirstNTenderbit]

This weekend, for the very first time* since the Maps switch, I actually had a need to go back to the Google app.

I wanted to use Street View to see the signs on buildings and find the right one.

Unfortunately....

a) Street View was completely blurry and shadowed and even enormous signs were unreadable on storefronts.

b) Google had the location completely wrong.

c) Compounded by the fact that getting around (reaching the CORRECT location manually) in Street View is an incredible pain compared to smoothly zipping around in Flyover. (Which, granted, puts you 50 feet in the air at best, but is still a great, immediately recognizable view of street in high detail. You can zoom in quite far in Flyover, and even read larger commercial signs.)

So I went back to Apple Maps and followed the route. Lo and behold, Apple has the location exactly right. The pin was in front of the exact building, and I didn't need a sign after all.

Some people have problems with Apple Maps, no doubt. We forget how often Google Maps has problems too.

* I do use Google for transit... but I do my destination search in Apple Maps because it has been easier and equally accurate. Then I hit the Transit button in Apple Maps which hands the query off to the Google app. Very painless: I get Google's transit results without having to deal with Google's painful searching... such as a failing to access my Address Book and Home locations, and failing to remember a search I just made 10 seconds ago! It's too bad, because Google IS the best at getting a badly-typed query right: I give full credit there.

Curious. Where is this place with the signs were completely blurry and shadowed?

 

[MH01]

Those hiring posting are for Managers. If you have any common sense at all, you'd figure that each Manager would be responsible for "managing" a bunch of employees working under them. So conceivably this might end up being several dozen to a few hundred "Ground Truth" employees under this single Apple project alone.

But I expected the Google fanboys to come and pour some salt in here anyways, as if it's some heinous crime for Apple (or anyone else) to work on improving their own mapping software. By the way, Android OS in its first year of existence sucked balls compared to iOS. Does that mean Google should have stopped improving it back then?

My preference would be for Apple to continue using Google maps. I was used to having the best maps on my iphone, and when apple maps replaced it, well that was probably the worst software release I have ever experienced.

As a Apple fan, I hate apple maps. I just cannot see Apple catching upto Google maps like android has to iOS. Time will tell I guess

 

[bbeagle]

Apple forgot an important rule when dealing with third-party data:

Trust, but verify.

You can't verify data for the entire world. Apple Maps have been excellent in my area. I use turn-by-turn on my phone constantly with less issues than my Garmin.

Apple is bashed for missing small little details, while Google is left alone for their 'beta' maps.

However, I agree that 'major' areas like New York City should have been inspected completely.

 

[MH01]

Remember when Microsoft, I mean Micro$oft was the big guy on the block and all the wannabes liked to pick on them just because of their success?

Well, now it's Apple it seems.

Not sure about M$ and success, though when thinking of M$ back in its peak they made some damn crap OS, like windows ME.

Problem is Apple Maps, sure brings back memories of M$ at its worst.

People are bagging Apple maps, not cause Apple is the top dog, its cause Apple maps suck.