Apple Maps Revamp Rolls Out Widely in Western and Midwestern United States

[Akrapovic]

Whilst Apple Maps has improved, it isn't really acceptable to require Google Maps to be installed for the times when Apple Maps fails.

My home address is wrong on it. I submitted a correction, and they moved my home position to the correct position, but ignored all of the houses around it, which are wrong. So now house 6 doesn't line up with 1-10, and those are all wrong.

It still fails to find most businesses. Equinor Aberdeen, zero results. Maersk Aberdeen gives me a training centre outside Aberdeen in Portlethen. Maersk Kingswells not found.

It's better than it used to be, but for simple "I have a meeting at X, how do I get there?" it consistently fails. So I feel like rolling out more accurate water layout should be a low priority when it doesn't get addresses and locations, or can't even find what you want. Google Maps has set the bar high, and Apple Maps is still miles off of it.

 

[coolfactor]

I don't like Google maps because it has a female voice. I can change Siri to a male voice. I do not like the sexist stereotype that people in helping professions have to be female. A male voice has a lower pitch and easier for me to hear.

Apple's original vision of a virtual assistant was a male. Remember Knowledge Navigator?

I mention this because anyone emotionally bound to the idea that somehow a stereotype exists need to look inward just a bit more and ask yourself if you can look past that to the bigger picture.

 

[Alan Gordon]

No it doesn’t. Same as mine. You have to zoom in pretty far to see them. It’s annoying. No buildings, no side roads, walkways. Nothing.

View attachment 878094

There were five streets on his screenshot. Four of them had names visible within the screenshot.

On yours, there are lot more streets missing.

 

[coolfactor]

It's better than it used to be, but for simple "I have a meeting at X, how do I get there?" it consistently fails.

Do you really ask "I have a meeting at X, how do I get there?"?

Have you tried alternative wording? The reason being that the assistance needs to analyze what you said, establish your intentions, extract names, locations, dates, times, etc. and then formulate an accurate response... immediately. It's quite a feat of engineering.

I'm not saying that your particular wording should fail, but given the sheer technologically divide involved here, you may want to try rephrasing your questions in order to get better responses.

 

[Alan Gordon]

We've had the updated Maps in Vancouver for a while now. Or maybe I'm mistaken by the upgrade with the Lane Guidance feature (which I can't live without in the big city!)? Maybe the re-rendered maps are even better than they are now? That would be incredible.

If you're referring to Vancouver, B.C., you do not have the updated Maps data yet.

The updated maps is U.S. only in 2019, but will be making it's way to more countries in 2020. Canada likely being one of those locations.
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My home address is wrong on it. I submitted a correction, and they moved my home position to the correct position, but ignored all of the houses around it, which are wrong. So now house 6 doesn't line up with 1-10, and those are all wrong.

Have you tried correcting your neighbor's addresses?

It still fails to find most businesses. Equinor Aberdeen, zero results. Maersk Aberdeen gives me a training centre outside Aberdeen in Portlethen. Maersk Kingswells not found.

Have you tried reporting these?

Most businesses in my area are correct, but that's because I report any that I find that are wrong or missing.

 

[SBlue1]

I think they're afraid to venture into Florida. I don't blame them.

I am from Germany and I have heard of the Florida man...

 

[millerlite]

Enjoy it, people who haven't seen it already. I use Apple Maps all the time, and the level of detail is amazing. You really feel like you understand your surroundings so much better because you see all buildings, parking lots, foliage, etc. I love it.

 

[StuBeck]

I've seen the Apple Maps camera cars in the Toronto area several times earlier this year. I'm hoping that the expansion outside the US will happen earlier in 2020 rather than later.

I saw them in upstate NY in 2016, so it could still be quite a while.

 

[iemcj]

Unless it allows you to download maps for offline use, I still won't move away from google maps.

I like that the apple maps integrates with ios better but as someone who's often driving through areas with no cell signal and also doesn't want to pay for more data than he needs to, being able to once every few weeks download the entire state map and have it available no matter what is killer.

 

[bchery21]

Does this just make directions and such more accurate or is this the new "street view" thing they had shown off before?

Think this is just supposed to be more accuracy and more landmarks, etc. and is supposed to be nationwide by the end of 2019. That cool street view thing is only in a very few places like San Francisco with no immediate plans to go nationwide (I think)

I believe Look Around is available in Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, NYC (all boroughs) and San Francisco.

 

[Alan Gordon]

I believe Look Around is available in San Fran, LA, Honolulu, Las Vegas and NYC.

Houston, TX launched yesterday.

Also, San Francisco's metro area is quite large, including San Jose and many neighboring cities, so Bay Area is probably more accurate.

 

[AbSoluTc]

There were five streets on his screenshot. Four of them had names visible within the screenshot.

On yours, there are lot more streets missing.

You still want to tell me Apple Maps is good? Like I said, I use it 90% of the time for long haul, normal destinations. However, some destinations don’t show up or don’t route correctly. The maps are also lacking in detail. Period. Have been for years.

 

[Akrapovic]

Do you really ask "I have a meeting at X, how do I get there?"?

Have you tried alternative wording? The reason being that the assistance needs to analyze what you said, establish your intentions, extract names, locations, dates, times, etc. and then formulate an accurate response... immediately. It's quite a feat of engineering.

I'm not saying that your particular wording should fail, but given the sheer technologically divide involved here, you may want to try rephrasing your questions in order to get better responses.

No I don’t ask Siri that. I literally type “Equinor Aberdeen” or “Equinor Kingswells” or even just “Equinor” into Apple Maps. I expect it to then find that and give me the option of directions to the site.

It fails at finding businesses almost 100% of the time. You need to give it addresses. How do you get the address? Easiest way is Google Maps. And at that point you’re better off ignoring AM.

It has improved. But it hasn’t even reached the level that Google Maps was at on launch.

To Alan, who asked about reporting (sorry, replying on a phone and the multi quote function is being odd!). It took 6 months and multiple reports (and multiple reports incorrectly closed by Apple) to move my single house. Am I now responsible for moving my whole street? Does that seem right? I buy an Apple Device, they provide a service and I Q&A it? One or two things, sure. Entire streets?

Same with businesses. I stopped reporting things when they didn’t get fixed. Sometimes Apple closes the ticket. Sometimes there’s no response. Also, on the phone, how do you even correct it when it says no results? Equinor Kingswells produces zero results and no option to fix this. If it’s wrong you can - if it doesn’t exist you don’t have an option. So what do I do there? Google Maps nails it.

I want to use Apple Maps. It has improved. But it isn’t good enough to rely on yet.

 

[Alan Gordon]

You still want to tell me Apple Maps is good?

Good is dependent upon your geographical location, your usage, etc.

Google and Apple are about equal in my location, and for my usage, I prefer it. Google may be better for you. That's fine.

Like I said, I use it 90% of the time for long haul, normal destinations. However, some destinations don’t show up or don’t route correctly. The maps are also lacking in detail. Period. Have been for years.

Routing is about equal to Google Maps in my location. I have had to make corrections, but I have had to do that for Google as well.

As for detail, Google wins that, but before the end of the year, once Apple's updated Maps reach my location, it should be about equal.

Google does have Street View, which while inferior to Look Around, is available in my area, whereas Look Around probably won't be for a while.


I replied to you because you said that Apple Maps doesn't have one way streets, but they do. I'm literally next to one right now, and it shows up as a one-way street in Apple Maps. You also said that it didn't show street names in screenshots from a post you quoted, but it showed 4 out of 5 street names in the screenshot. I wasn't trying to debate the quality, which can be very subjective.
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To Alan, who asked about reporting (sorry, replying on a phone and the multi quote function is being odd!). It took 6 months and multiple reports (and multiple reports incorrectly closed by Apple) to move my single house. Am I now responsible for moving my whole street? Does that seem right? I buy an Apple Device, they provide a service and I Q&A it? One or two things, sure. Entire streets?

Google's data is primarily their own, but Apple's data (in non-updated Maps areas) have come from TomTom. By the end of the year, the U.S. should rely on Apple data for residential addresses, and should be easier to correct.

Apple and Google both heavily rely on user submissions for corrections. Google has built up a large group of editors for help, and that's one of the reason why Google may be more accurate than Apple, as they've had years of reports.

Same with businesses. I stopped reporting things when they didn’t get fixed. Sometimes Apple closes the ticket. Sometimes there’s no response. Also, on the phone, how do you even correct it when it says no results? Equinor Kingswells produces zero results and no option to fix this. If it’s wrong you can - if it doesn’t exist you don’t have an option. So what do I do there? Google Maps nails it.

There were several months earlier this year where Apple was slow to make corrections, but they usually make them within a week, sometimes within 48 hours.

As for how do make corrections when there's no results. There's an option in Maps to create a new POI, though adding a listing in Yelp also works, though it may be a little slower to show up. Apple still relies on Yelp for a lot of their POIs.

I want to use Apple Maps. It has improved. But it isn’t good enough to rely on yet.

Again, this is a blanket statement. For your location, it might not be good enough to rely on yet, but for other locations, it might be.

 

[s1m]

The rest of the world will stick to Google Maps I guess

I haven't been usinggoogle maps in Australia for a long time.

 

[Akrapovic]

Good is dependent upon your geographical location, your usage, etc.

Google and Apple are about equal in my location, and for my usage, I prefer it. Google may be better for you. That's fine.



Routing is about equal to Google Maps in my location. I have had to make corrections, but I have had to do that for Google as well.

As for detail, Google wins that, but before the end of the year, once Apple's updated Maps reach my location, it should be about equal.

Google does have Street View, which while inferior to Look Around, is available in my area, whereas Look Around probably won't be for a while.


I replied to you because you said that Apple Maps doesn't have one way streets, but they do. I'm literally next to one right now, and it shows up as a one-way street in Apple Maps. You also said that it didn't show street names in screenshots from a post you quoted, but it showed 4 out of 5 street names in the screenshot. I wasn't trying to debate the quality, which can be very subjective.
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Google's data is primarily their own, but Apple's data (in non-updated Maps areas) have come from TomTom. By the end of the year, the U.S. should rely on Apple data for residential addresses, and should be easier to correct.

Apple and Google both heavily rely on user submissions for corrections. Google has built up a large group of editors for help, and that's one of the reason why Google may be more accurate than Apple, as they've had years of reports.



There were several months earlier this year where Apple was slow to make corrections, but they usually make them within a week, sometimes within 48 hours.

As for how do make corrections when there's no results. There's an option in Maps to create a new POI, though adding a listing in Yelp also works, though it may be a little slower to show up. Apple still relies on Yelp for a lot of their POIs.



Again, this is a blanket statement. For your location, it might not be good enough to rely on yet, but for other locations, it might be.

A mapping system which swings between excellent and completely incompetent is untrustworthy. “It might be” good enough (your words, not mine) for other locations isn’t good enough because you don’t know where it’s good until you’ve tried it. The whole point is when you don’t know where something is, the maps are meant to tell you.

If this was a data backup system and it failed about 50% of the time for 50% of the users, but worked around 99% of the time for you, you still shouldn’t trust it because there’s widespread reports of issues.

Apple Maps is bad enough for enough people that it’s still fine to call it incompetent. It still cannot do the job it’s meant to do enough of the time to be called good enough. “It works for me” isn’t a particularly good argument when we all know how bad it is everywhere else.

If I was to try and fix Apple Maps by adding new places every time it failed then I’d have a full time job just in my area alone. And even then I’d miss things. That’s not my job to fix - that’s Apples. One or two things, sure. Streets and business parks, no. That’s not the user’s responsibility. Otherwise you wouldn’t need a mapping service.

i want to use it. I try to use it. I don’t want to use Google Maps. But Apple Maps falls short every time. And Apple Maps won’t improve whilst we have apologists saying “fine for me, maybe you should index your whole city like Apple should’ve done!”

 

[-Maxim-]

Still no BIKING I would love to get rid of Google Maps but they have good biking directions and Apple totally ignores that. Sad face.

 

[parseckadet]

I simply do not understand some of the comments in this thread. This story is about the new map data, yet most of the comments are complaints based on bad experiences with the old data. We all understand that Apple Maps has issues, more so in particular areas/countries than others. What I'm interested in is whether Apple's attempts to improve matters are proving to be successful or not. Very few of the comments in this thread address that.

I think most of us agree that it isn't reasonable to expect Apple to update all of their maps with new, better data overnight. This is a process that's going to take time. So why gripe about the old data? Let's examine the updated data and see how it compares.

 

[Akrapovic]

I simply do not understand some of the comments in this thread. This story is about the new map data, yet most of the comments are complaints based on bad experiences with the old data. We all understand that Apple Maps has issues, more so in particular areas/countries than others. What I'm interested in is whether Apple's attempts to improve matters are proving to be successful or not. Very few of the comments in this thread address that.

I think most of us agree that it isn't reasonable to expect Apple to update all of their maps with new, better data overnight. This is a process that's going to take time. So why gripe about the old data? Let's examine the updated data and see how it compares.

The complaints are people saying businesses, addresses and roads are missing, thus leading to being unable to find what you need, or being routed in awkward directions due to a road being incorrectly mapped.

The opening post of this thread states:

with more accurate details like grass and trees, pools, parking lots, exact building shapes, sports areas like baseball diamonds and basketball courts, and pedestrian pathways that are commonly walked but previously unmapped

Trees, grass, pools, building spares and baseball diamonds won't fix this. It'll improve the aesthetic maybe (although I do think Apple Maps looks better than Google Maps a lot of the time), but it won't solve the major issues with it. Maybe parking lots would help, if those appear on search results. But the actual content, the directory of information if you will, is where Apple Maps seriously lacks. I'll swap football pitches for actually listing companies in my area.

 

[parseckadet]

The complaints are people saying businesses, addresses and roads are missing, thus leading to being unable to find what you need, or being routed in awkward directions due to a road being incorrectly mapped.

The opening post of this thread states:



Trees, grass, pools, building spares and baseball diamonds won't fix this. It'll improve the aesthetic maybe (although I do think Apple Maps looks better than Google Maps a lot of the time), but it won't solve the major issues with it. Maybe parking lots would help, if those appear on search results. But the actual content, the directory of information if you will, is where Apple Maps seriously lacks. I'll swap football pitches for actually listing companies in my area.

First, I don't think the original post was intended to be an exhaustive list of all the improvements Apple has made to the updated maps. I think it is generally understood that if you want additional details about the improvements that you should watch the Apple Maps portion of the WWDC keynote. One of the things Apple mentioned was improved POI data, which relates to one of your previous complaints. Further, one of your earlier posts specifically mentioned Aberdeen, and I presume you're referring to the Aberdeen in Scotland. These updates are only being rolled out in the US thus far, as have many of Apple's updates in recent years. There are multiple cities named Aberdeen in the US, but none of them are particularly well known and most Americans would have specified the state as a result. Not to mention your use of the word "pitch" to refer to sports fields, which is a distinctively British use of that word. You're comparing apples and oranges, which isn't particularly helpful or interesting.

 

[Akrapovic]

You might be right - it might not be an exhaustive list of improvements. But you don't lead with the minor ones. If you're fixing the fact that half of the businesses in the area don't exist then lead with that. Not "Look! Baseball!". Priorities.

You're correct in your assumption that this is Aberdeen Scotland, rather than Aberdeen US (and I think there's a few in Canada and Aussieland as well). These new updates might be getting rolled out in the US, but again, the updates listed are somewhat worrying. In the UK the apps map is not competent. I want it to be because I prefer the Apple UI, I prefer the integration and I like Apples privacy push. However, it is not competent. Not even remotely close. You say this is rolling out in the US, however it also says rolling out to other countries in 2020. That's somewhere between 2 and 14 months away - which really isn't long. For a project of this scale it's basically crunch time.

So if the updates Apple are planning are along the lines of "That lake looks a bit nicer now" and "We've added an extension to that building, now it's realistic looking!", rather than "We're fixing massive gaping holes in the useable data" then I am not impressed. Again, priorities.

Apple is adding some baseball fields, whilst Google has added procedurally generated 3D buildings in half the cities in the world which you can fly over. Asking Apple to at least match the relevant data that Google Maps has achieved for a decade, and not even caring about the added funky stuff that Google does, is setting the bar pretty low. But yet Apple continues to limbo below that bar. Which is sad - because for a lot of things Apple is the standard.

And you can compare Apples and Oranges. They are both fruit. Apples are better. Except when you try to map the Apple, then the Orange will have more detail.

 

[NufSaid]

Apple Maps > Google Maps in Paris
I spent 8 days there and outside of the maps being download in Google's case, Google was inferior in every way. Their transit was really not that good. It kept routing me through closed stations (that had been closed for a very long time).

The details in my maps here are great. I may completely be switching (Except for google reviews)

 

[szw-mapple fan]

It is nice that Apple is making these updates but at the same time Google Maps is so far ahead that I don't see any reason to use Apple Maps other then perhaps some loyalty to Apple as a company. I don't especially like Google but fundamentally the job of a map it to get me where I am going and Google does that.

I switched back to Apple Maps after they rolled out the better maps last year in my area. Haven't had a issue yet. I still keep Google Maps installed as a backup but I haven't launched it months. Main advantages that keep me using Apple Maps personally:

• Better Maps UI/contrast
• Lighter and launches faster than Google Maps on my older phone.
• Apple Watch support with tapping directions
• Handoff from my Mac that actually works
• Better street view/look around

 

[RockTheGlobe]

I feel like from a ”what’s where and what’s around” perspective, Apple Maps makes very poor choices about what to highlight. Do I really need to see all the greenery and exact building shapes/details, or do I want to know more about the stores and businesses and streets?

I just looked up my wife’s location on “Find My” to see if she was still out or on her way home. The app uses Apple Maps and pegged her location, but said she was at a Starbucks. I looked up the posted address in Google Maps, which instantly said, yes, there is a Starbucks in that location, but that address is a Super Target and the Starbucks is actually inside the Super Target (and Target is where I anticipated my wife to be). Huge miss on Apple Maps’ part to completely ignore the huge Super Target.

 

[name99]

I feel like from a ”what’s where and what’s around” perspective, Apple Maps makes very poor choices about what to highlight. Do I really need to see all the greenery and exact building shapes/details, or do I want to know more about the stores and businesses and streets?

I just looked up my wife’s location on “Find My” to see if she was still out or on her way home. The app uses Apple Maps and pegged her location, but said she was at a Starbucks. I looked up the posted address in Google Maps, which instantly said, yes, there is a Starbucks in that location, but that address is a Super Target and the Starbucks is actually inside the Super Target (and Target is where I anticipated my wife to be). Huge miss on Apple Maps’ part to completely ignore the huge Super Target.

You go to war with the tools you have, not the tools you wish you had...

I think we're getting the buildings and greenery because those can be automatically extracted from imagery. I agree that each individual one is not THAT useful, but I treat them more as "texture"; I don't look at the precise details but the overall pattern gives one a feel for the location.

As for business details, that's a more difficult problem. Obviously aggregators like Yelp have some value, but for large registrars of businesses, well here the fragmented nature of US government is a real problem. You can make a deal to get all the data from LA City, but that doesn't advance you in Pasadena next door, let alone New York City. They get much better results of this sort in a place like China before doing well in the US.
You can try to scrape data off the web (and I expect if Apple aren't doing this already at some point they will) but that's also not perfect. I've had, on multiple occasions, Google send me to businesses that no longer exist. My guess is this was data acquired by scraping, and the lack of any sort of "cancel/invalidate" mechanism attached to scraping results in that particular failure mode.

MAYBE (I don't know) there are plans to get some data through Apple Card (or even side agreements with other credit card companies)? If you know that credit card payments are being taken at a particular address, and can link together the payments, the address, the business name, you have reasonably reliable data...
Of course that doesn't catch entities that don't take credit card payments, so it's still not a perfect solution.