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Apple Maps to Be Rebuilt 'From the Ground Up' With First-Party Data Over the Next Year

“we've done a huge investment in getting the map up to par," said Cue

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This is laughable. Apple Maps is definitely not up to par. And Apple knows it. If Apple thinks its maps are “up to par”, let them allow iPhone users choose their own default map application. Let there be real competition and let the users choose (vote), and let users decide what is par and what is not par.

Also, Apple users don’t care how much work is put in or how much money is invested. That is a PC line of reasoning. Apple users only care about the quality of the final product. And they are willing to pay for that. Quality of maps is easily measurable by the way, impossible to hide with eye candy... did you get to your destination easily or not... its that simple... so this is a really great test of Apple’s ability to make a critical everyday software application.

Google is far ahead in this game right now. It mostly just works (on mobile) their desktop version is messy, but that is excusable given that their data is pretty great.

Apple, why not just let users vote and take that as feedback to your UX team. Cold hard honest brutal feedback. Without that feedback do you think you’re going to accidentally beat Google at this?

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I don’t even want to bring up Apple Maps on desktop. Its just totally crap. It would be an insult to google to even try to compare. No comprison. From top to bottom it sucks. Every moment Apple is playing games with 3D buildings, they are missing the point and the business of maps.

I expect the best, I pay for the best, I am a long time supporter.

Apple wants to stick it to loyal fans by making each OS slower and doggier than the last... ok fine. We pay and pay. And now you want us to believe your maps are up to par? Not only are they NOT up to par, theyre nowhere close. They should be #1. Not even close. The price I paid for my iPhone was not up to par. It was more expensive.

dang, at least while you take a decade to get your act together, let me make google maps my default map PLEASE!!!! Soooo annoying.

While at it, please give me 1 button to on/off my wifi. You messed that up too.
 
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Lotsa haters, and I get it, but a) Apple Maps is vastly better than at rollout, and b) just because it may not be as useful for some at Google Maps doesn’t make it bad.
markfc said:
Let’s hope it has some decent UK data. Will it even matter when we get google maps on CarPlay in September??
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Won’t care about GM if Waze is coming too.
 
MozMan68 said:
Umm...that’s exactly what the vans are doing...and their technology will integrate it seamlessly with flyover. You’ll be able to start 1,000’s of feet up and zoom right down to street level.

I always hate that if I try to do that with Google Maps, it suddenly changes to the street view “image” and I can’t tell if I’m facing the same direction as I was when I was zooming. Will be seamless with Apple thanks to Lidar no matter what “level” you are zoomed to.
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So we’ll have better superficial eye candy effects but will the data be anymore accurate than today? Who cares about zooming in from thousands of feet? Sure it makes for an impressive demo, but it has zero real world application. It’s just fluff. Comprehensive and accurate data is what a mapping solution needs first and foremost and years after ditching Google to roll their own solution, Apple is still far behind.
 
10 countries + USA. Seriously, Apple is a global company and should start treating the rest of the world as their customers and not some 2nd tier customer.

Many of their product features are only available in selected countries and these features have been around Apple platform for over a year, some even 5 years.
 
I moved to Rome, Italy 5 years ago and Apple Maps has been worthless. This past week they added local transit info for the first time and it hasn't a clue about best transit options, bus/metro stop or departure schedules. Apple is US-centric for most of its services and years behind Google and others. Heck, no name apps offer perfectly good realtime public transit info for Rome yet the world's largest company will take half a year to improve Northern California. I'm an Apple fan boy but I am becoming frustrated with all the compromises I need to make.
 
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I use Apple Maps more then Google Maps with good results. Like the interface and integration with Apple Ecosystem. However, nice to have a second opinion when things are not going well. Much like having two web browsers. Good for Apple sticking with Maps.
 
jsamuels said:
I moved to Rome, Italy 5 years ago and Apple Maps has been worthless. This past week they added local transit info for the first time and it hasn't a clue about best transit options, bus/metro stop or departure schedules. Apple is US-centric for most of its services and years behind Google and others. Heck, no name apps offer perfectly good realtime public transit info for Rome yet the world's largest company will take half a year to improve Northern California. I'm an Apple fan boy but I am becoming frustrated with all the compromises I need to make.
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Haha, don't worry, we have TC at helm and all he seems to be concerned about is being a CEO Politician.
 
I'm just happy they allow Waze on carplay now (or soon), no need for me to even touch Apple Maps. Although I do miss lane assistance and wish Waze had it.
 
Issues with Apple Maps have long been resolved in my city. While I kept Google Maps alongside Apple Maps, using them interchangeably, I deleted Google Maps in year 2 and have relied on Apple Maps 100% of the time since.

In once instance, Google Maps sent me around the city to get to a destination that I knew was much closer. When that smelled fishy, I asked Apple Maps and it sent me in a relatively straight line. Both services have their issues and each service may be stronger in one city vs another but overall, Apple Maps is solid.

One outstanding issue is it sometimes searching for a business or street in another city when there are much closer alternatives with that name. This has got to be a bug as it can't be by design. The lack of Street View is only rarely missed and I like the idea of Fly Over with a street level resolution. I use Fly Over constantly and it would be great if I could zoom in close to street level and make out storefront details. That's a far better UI than Google's fidgety Street View.
 
spinedoc77 said:
I'm just happy they allow Waze on carplay now (or soon), no need for me to even touch Apple Maps. Although I do miss lane assistance and wish Waze had it.
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Any idea why Waze has no lane assistance when Google has it?
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Radon87000 said:
Outside the US, in many countries I have visited, Google Maps humiliates this so badly.
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Yeah, and Apple seems to think their customers are all living in first world countries
 
Apple needs to focus on what they are good at and outsource the others. They should just install the Google Maps app and call it a day.

Apple can customize it to show Apple stores and information about them the way Tesla cars have their version modified to show Superchargers, Service Centers, etc. Tesla also incorporates distance to Superchargers and remaining charge upon arrival into the trip planning.
 
markfc said:
Let’s hope it has some decent UK data. Will it even matter when we get google maps on CarPlay in September??
Click to expand...
You obviously have much more experience with Apple Maps in the UK than I do, but I have to say I was very pleased with Apple Maps when I was in London last summer for 45 days, especially with its TFL data.
 
robbyx said:
So we’ll have better superficial eye candy effects but will the data be anymore accurate than today? Who cares about zooming in from thousands of feet? Sure it makes for an impressive demo, but it has zero real world application. It’s just fluff. Comprehensive and accurate data is what a mapping solution needs first and foremost and years after ditching Google to roll their own solution, Apple is still far behind.
Click to expand...

Did you even read what I wrote or why the response was even there.

The statement was that Apple Maps would be useless u til they have street view...they are adding a BETTER version of street view. That’s all I said.

It will be more up to date since they are mapping the streets NOW.

Like others have said...it will be practically a VR experience from satellite view all the way down to street view and right into interior views. Google CAN’T do that because they’re software is based on images and not Lidar.
 
ipedro said:
Issues with Apple Maps have long been resolved in my city. While I kept Google Maps alongside Apple Maps, using them interchangeably, I deleted Google Maps in year 2 and have relied on Apple Maps 100% of the time since.

In once instance, Google Maps sent me around the city to get to a destination that I knew was much closer. When that smelled fishy, I asked Apple Maps and it sent me in a relatively straight line. Both services have their issues and each service may be stronger in one city vs another but overall, Apple Maps is solid.

One outstanding issue is it sometimes searching for a business or street in another city when there are much closer alternatives with that name. This has got to be a bug as it can't be by design. The lack of Street View is only rarely missed and I like the idea of Fly Over with a street level resolution. I use Fly Over constantly and it would be great if I could zoom in close to street level and make out storefront details. That's a far better UI than Google's fidgety Street View.
Click to expand...

the Google Maps setting is probably because traffic re-routing was on. Have had that happen as well, in the end, it more often saves me time because it avoids some heavy congestion that I don't know about.

live in a region rated 6th worst traffic in the world. Google's live re-routing has saved my bacon more than once. Haven't used Apple Maps since my last ipHone though, so wondering if they've added similar functionality or not. The "straight line" from Apple might have been because it couldn't adjust for traffic patterns.

Yeah, Google's street view is finicky as heck. even on the web. Was trying to show the streetview to coworkers for new house I bought, and it just kept bouncing allover the zoom inand out, and angles that made no sense.
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Radon87000 said:
Outside the US, in many countries I have visited, Google Maps humiliates this so badly.
Click to expand...


I'ts one thing that I don't think a lot of American users don't realize about Apple is how extremely US centric they tend to be. Even as a Canadian, who lives < 200km from the US border, Apple often treats us like we're a 3rd world country. Taking months to years later to release products (because they're really slow to pickup other languages, although almost all us tech companies are the same), or outright ridiculous pricing margins that scream "we don't care about your market"
 
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MozMan68 said:
Did you even read what I wrote or why the response was even there.

The statement was that Apple Maps would be useless u til they have street view...they are adding a BETTER version of street view. That’s all I said.

It will be more up to date since they are mapping the streets NOW.

Like others have said...it will be practically a VR experience from satellite view all the way down to street view and right into interior views. Google CAN’T do that because they’re software is based on images and not Lidar.
Click to expand...

Who cares? It’s just fluff. What? You don’t think Google is mapping streets now too? The day Apple’s data is better than Google’s is the day pigs fly. Zooming in from thousands of feet is all eye candy and pretty useless.
 
Another vaporware announcement by Apple. Will probably be 2025 for the rest of the world will have the updated maps. Still waiting on 80% of the Siri features announced at launch (7 years), Apple Pay (4 years) and Apple News. Apple services suck at scale.
 
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robbyx said:
Who cares? It’s just fluff. What? You don’t think Google is mapping streets now too? The day Apple’s data is better than Google’s is the day pigs fly. Zooming in from thousands of feet is all eye candy and pretty useless.
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Since when is a picture “data”??

You are comparing “Apples” (hah) and oranges.

I was only responding to the comment about HAVING street view. They will...and it WILL be better than Google’s simply because of the tech they are using (and the image will be more recent)
 
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