I realize that, however even before the acquisition it was more advanced with regards to traffic data and route mapping.
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Apple Maps to Be Rebuilt 'From the Ground Up' With First-Party Data Over the Next Year
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Except they didn't say they need months to go from the Bay Area to Northern California, they simply said that's when they'll roll it out. Better to get the collection technology working really well in a small area, then you can roll out elsewhere more quickly.
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Or, you could try it for a drive or two and see how it does. I find it quite reliable, and and I also find it easier to parse necessary data off the screen in a glance than with either Google Maps or Waze. I hop back and forth between all 3 for various reasons, but I find Apple's UI superior for use while driving.
This is terrific news. I’ve been waiting for Apple to perfect Maps for ages. I don’t want to use Google Maps, but it’s the only option. Currently Maps suck, especially for transit planning. It doesn’t know how to connect you between busses or one bus changes number at one stop and you can just remain on board instead of getting off and wait for the next bus, because Maps assumes that there is no way for you to catch that bus.
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Wow. This is just plain great news! In addition to improving accuracy of roads, traffic, detours/alt routes and points of interest, I imagine this will allow a base platform that will allow more rapid and frequent rollout of new features in the future.
I’d love if they did offer their own version of street view and biking directions, but I’m very excited with what’s been announced so far.
I’d love if they did offer their own version of street view and biking directions, but I’m very excited with what’s been announced so far.
If you had read the article, you’d know that these updates are going to go a long way in fixing issues like adding new roads and features because Apple will be eliminating a middleman of sorts. Instead of requiring many corrections and additions to go through a third party, Apple can fix it directly on their own base map.
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Too late for that now for obvious reasons, but they should have done that year ago. TomTom has a >15-year-old route for a U.S. highway through my hometown. It’s been rerouted for well over a decade and TomTom refuses to acknowledge it. OpenStreetMap has it right. I’ve reported it to Apple multiple times, even with photographic proof, and they haven’t been able to get it fixed.
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LiDAR allows them to create a 3D representation of scenes captured by the vehicles. It seems that it’s being used mostly for buildings, but they may also be collecting data aimed at some autonomous driving ambitions, too. Why not kill two birds with one stone?
Do you know if Google uses open street maps, or do they have their own private database? I imagine that Apple having its own database May someday allow it to actually be able to differentiate itself .
Also, with the number of iPhones out there in the world, Apple Maps has the potential to have way more users giving active feedback than Tom Tom or any non-Google database could ever provide.
I read the article before I posted my first comment. And right now it’s a bunch of empty promises from the schlub Eddie Cue of all people. It will be the best. Some day. Soon. We promise.
Yeah right.
Will Apple’s data be more accurate? Will there be as many points of interest as Google? I highly doubt it, but we’ll see.
Will there be a bunch of meaningless UI eye candy and hyperbole describing the most amazing mapping solution in the history of the universe? Highly likely.
Yeah, they do actually. One of the corrections I sent in to Apple Maps is wrong in a different way on Google Maps.
I use Apple Maps. Very few problems, as opposed to six years ago when it was a disaster. Not sure I am a fan of giving up the data supplied by companies like TomTom, who have been in the game forever. I can't see how Apple's Map can be considered superior.
I also dislike Eddie Cue and feel a lot of services problems have come under his watch, but I guess we'll see.
This move makes sense---Apple is trying to do away with as many vendors as possible for complete control. The article wasn't really specific---will we get something similar to street view?
I also dislike Eddie Cue and feel a lot of services problems have come under his watch, but I guess we'll see.
This move makes sense---Apple is trying to do away with as many vendors as possible for complete control. The article wasn't really specific---will we get something similar to street view?
Parsing (and AI) has always been a positive for Google...across the board...but I can’t remember the last time I asked for directions like that...but that’s me.
I have an address...I type it in...tell me how to get there from where I am. Apple Maps does that just fine for me.
Your one step example works great on Google though. Apple required me to type in “Glasgow” and then type in Edinburgh as a starting point. Brought up the same directions.
I'd really like to see weather radar overlay built in.
On a recent road trip I went through a line of severe thunderstorms. I knew about the storms due to a fortunate rest area stop about 10 miles out from the line. I checked my weather app and was surprised to see the intensity of the storms. Driving on the road it wasn't evident we were driving into storms until about 2 miles out.
It wasn't a pleasant drive by any estimation, but at least I was forewarned.
Having weather radar overlay can be a real help.
On a recent road trip I went through a line of severe thunderstorms. I knew about the storms due to a fortunate rest area stop about 10 miles out from the line. I checked my weather app and was surprised to see the intensity of the storms. Driving on the road it wasn't evident we were driving into storms until about 2 miles out.
It wasn't a pleasant drive by any estimation, but at least I was forewarned.
Having weather radar overlay can be a real help.
Good to hear Apple is investing a lot in maps. I mostly use waze and google maps but when I do use Apple maps I enjoy the UI.
Apple have made it next to impossible to trust their maps service each time they say its improved because they never admit that’s its still terrible compared to Google’s. Which it is, particularly in the case of business locations and pedestrian routes.
It’s the same story and with all Apple services really - I can’t trust that my iMessages will be synced, or my clipboard, or my desktop, or my contacts, or my emails, or the watch state of an iTunes film, or anything basically. To put it simply, Apple’s Sevices division is terrible.
It’s the same story and with all Apple services really - I can’t trust that my iMessages will be synced, or my clipboard, or my desktop, or my contacts, or my emails, or the watch state of an iTunes film, or anything basically. To put it simply, Apple’s Sevices division is terrible.
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Their services have always been feature poor compared to the competition. However, they mostly work OK for basic use cases.
I have low expectations for this attempt at Maps, so maybe they miraculously surprise people
Agreed. Apple Maps became a reliable option for me in iOS 8. Prior to that I used Google Maps because Apple Maps might take me to a field instead of my actual destination. Once iOS 8 hit not only were the directions reliable but so was real time rerouting when traffic came to a stand still. It’s been my daily driver Maps app ever since but I did have a major hiccup the other day after installing the iOS 12 public beta. The Maps app couldn’t detect I was driving on a highway and placed me about a mile from where I really was. I had to use Google Maps instead but stuff like that is to be expected in a beta so I reported it and will stick with Google Maps for the duration of the beta unless they reply to the feedback report that it’s fixed.