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I wish Apple Maps was even close to Google Maps. It is amazing to me how horrible Apple Maps is compared to Google. Just cut the plug and make Google standard to all Apple products. The traffic in Google is great and is always accurate....Apple Maps is useless (at least in my area). Now with cars having CarPlay, just let us use Google as an app!
 
they have since traveled to Croatia, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom

And, also in this case, as with Google Street View (cfr. screenshot), Germany will be left out due to its irrational phobias... :(

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I suspect they’re doing something along the lines of “automated” street view where you can put in an origin and destination and then get a scrubbable, interactive video that allows you to pan, tilt, and zoom the video to see your surroundings at any point during the trip. Instead of “Street View”, they’ll probably call it something like “Road Trip”.
Lol that is an Apple sounding name.
 
I think you make a good point. Some never resort to using Apple Maps preinstalled on an iPhone, they just automatically download Google maps and assume Apple Maps is not relevant or as accurate as Apple Maps is. I find Apple Maps to be in my city excellent for road closures and alternative routes to reach my destination without issue. I’m not being dismissive for anyone that likes Google maps or Waze, I don’t even have either of those apps installed on my phone, because Apple Maps has been my primary.

I juggle between Google and Apple maps. The issue with Apple Maps is POIs specifically businesses and restaurant locations are abysmal compared to Google. Apple gets most of their data from Yelp of all things.

Both are generally adequate for driving as are most other GPS devices though.
 
Interesting that Apple could be at this project so publicly for years, yet nobody outside of the company really knows why they are doing it. Kind of goes to show how completely they can keep a secret when no supply chain is involved.
 
Have to Disagree. Outside America Google Maps is the first & only choice for me

I have to agree, well from my experience Apple Maps isn’t great for me in the U.K. It will get me to the general place but rarely gets me to the door.

And Siri plus Apple Maps is a disaster. Just last week I asked it to take me to the Enterprise car rental place. I was Inverness and the one she picked for me was miles away even though there was one by the airport - I know because that’s where I’d picked the car up from! When I’d convinced Maps there was one and its address, I was still sent to the middle of a housing estate about three miles from the actual place.

My go to for accurate instructions now is Waze. Accurate and gives far more info like speed cameras, cars on hard shoulders of motorways, etc. I understand that’s the community element but I found it’s just a better navigation tool.

I just wish it worked with CarPlay. A cheap dash mount sorted that though.

- D
 
I suspect they’re doing something along the lines of “automated” street view where you can put in an origin and destination and then get a scrubbable, interactive video that allows you to pan, tilt, and zoom the video to see your surroundings at any point during the trip. Instead of “Street View”, they’ll probably call it something like “Road Trip”.

As good a guess as any.
 
So they've been mapping for three years and it might not even be until the 4th year that we get to use the feature? The first places mapped are already way out of date. I'm pretty sure Google has street mapped my house twice since Apple started doing this. If this feature is going to be useful then it needs to be updated at regular, timely intervals. Makes me wonder if they're doing some experimental stuff here with the LIDAR. Like they're going to make fully interactive 3D street views with amazing detail. One can hope…
 
The level of detail that lidar provides, along with the other measurements, causes me to think this is more about self-driving cars than Street View. Personally, I think Street View is a byproduct.

Alternatively:

attack drone flight paths. #skynet
 
So they've been mapping for three years and it might not even be until the 4th year that we get to use the feature? The first places mapped are already way out of date. I'm pretty sure Google has street mapped my house twice since Apple started doing this. If this feature is going to be useful then it needs to be updated at regular, timely intervals. Makes me wonder if they're doing some experimental stuff here with the LIDAR. Like they're going to make fully interactive 3D street views with amazing detail. One can hope…

See my point above: nobody outside of Apple knows why they are doing this. Seeing as this is Apple, the guesses are likely to be wrong, especially if you go for the obvious.
 
They've already been shown to be the most accurate. There's a reason Apple Maps is by far the most used mapping app on the iPhone beyond it being pre-installed, because, of course, people wouldn't use a mapping service that was inaccurate when they have multiple free options, like Google Maps, etc., that can be downloaded in less than a minute. Indeed, when Apple last reported it a couple of years ago, Apple Maps was being used several BILLION times a week.

Was this before or after they put an ocean and a continent in the wrong place?
 
Maybe they should get the maps bit of Apple maps to work first before adding enhanced features.


Every time I want direction for trips I have to always start with a destination of home and then edit it.
 
Apple Watch and Apple Maps a very nice combination while driving.

Agree, but one problem I have with the watch is the sound it delivers for turning - although the chime for turning left or right is of a different pitch, they're both the same number: 3. I often forget which is which. Wish turning left was 2 chimes, and turning right was 3...
 
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I don't understand the concept of reinventing the wheels. It's not like Apple is going you Father s completely different set of data than Google. Why not just buy the data?
 
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Not Sure how you can say that Apple Maps is “terrible”, which could be variable based on someone’s experience in location. I use Apple Maps every single day and it’s never failed me. It’s greatly improved from where it was once, and it gives me all the necessary information I need to get to my destination the quickest and best route. I don’t even use Google maps anymore, even though Google maps is very good.

Of course Apple maps is better, even though it isn’t. Apple’s maps voice recognition can’t match Google. Google gets the address correct a very high percentage of the time. Apple blows it 2 out of 10.
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The other huge advantage Apple Maps has is privacy protection. Google logs every use of Google Maps and adds it to your "universal identifier" number which has your gmails, every web search and click, every photo, every thing said in front of assistant, your contacts, every document uploaded, etc., all available to hackers, intel agencies, law enforcement, and any company Google works with or decides to sell it to (not currently done, but read your terms of service, they retain the right to sell or transfer it to other companies).

It’s the chem trails.
 
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What is significant is that Google was default, and then was the one recommended by Apple, but Apple Maps usage steadily grew to overtake it by a long shot. The other key thing is that everybody knows about Google Maps, it's free and take a minute to download and is default on most web sites. Inaccurate mapping isn't something that people would put up with as they need to get where they are going when they need to be there, so having BILLIONS of uses a week is significant.


I'm gad there's an ignore button when you need one.
 
Apple Maps main issue, at least in my opinion, is POIs. They are woefully inaccurate, not comprehensive and a joke compared to google.

Not Sure how you can say that Apple Maps is “terrible”, which could be variable based on someone’s experience in location. I use Apple Maps every single day and it’s never failed me. It’s greatly improved from where it was once, and it gives me all the necessary information I need to get to my destination the quickest and best route. I don’t even use Google maps anymore, even though Google maps is very good.
 
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We don’t need another Google Maps! Focus on better products please!

Speak for yourself. I welcome mapping functionality that isn't spying on me for marketing purposes.
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Wow, welcome to google maps 2005

Really, has Apple implemented features to spy on your location/travel/searches to sell off to marketing companies?
 



Apple Maps vehicles equipped with LiDAR equipment have now surveyed at least 41 states in the United States, with recent areas including Maine and Iowa, as the fleet of vans continue to collect mapping data across the country.

apple-maps-van-us.jpg

The vehicles first took to the streets in major American cities like New York in 2015, and they have since traveled to Croatia, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Apple periodically updates a list of locations where the vehicles will be collecting data on its website.

Apple's page notes that it will "blur faces and license plates on collected images prior to publication," suggesting that the company is working on a feature similar to Google's Street View for Apple Maps.

Back in 2015, Mark Gurman reported that Apple planned to launch a 3D street view feature, based on a combination of its existing Flyover mode with street-level data. He also said the data would help Apple shift to an in-house mapping database by 2018, reducing its reliance on third-party sources like TomTom.

At the time, Gurman said Apple did not believe that Google's classic Street View interfaces were intuitive to users, and as a result, he said the company was exploring new ways to present that kind of imagery.

Google launched Street View way back in 2007, so if Apple is truly working on its own competing feature, then it will presumably have points of differences. Otherwise, it is certainly possible that the vehicle-collected data will only be used for storefront imagery or other underlying mapping improvements.

When Apple's fleet of vans first hit the streets, it was speculated they could be the basis of an Apple Car. But those rumors quieted down after the vans were labeled with Apple Maps decals, and because Apple has shifted towards testing self-driving software with Lexus 450h SUVs near its headquarters in California.

It's too early to say when Apple will fully take advantage of the data it has collected, but with parts of at least 80 percent of the United States now surveyed, the fruits of the labor could be witnessed sooner rather than later.

Article Link: Apple Maps Vehicles Have Now Collected Street View Data in Over 40 States and 10 Countries
 
I would be happy if they could just update maps more frequently. I was driving home from Davenport, Iowa last weekend and looking for a Subway restaurant. I have Apple CarPlay in my car so I asked Siri for directions to Subway and "she" gave me turn by turn directions to the exact location where a Subway used to be. There was no sign on the empty building she led me to but you could tell from the sun faded facade on the building that there used to be a Subway sign there.
 
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