Apple Maps Vehicles Have Now Collected Street View Data in Over 40 States and 10 Countries

[MozMan68]

Start with Flyover, and swoop smoothly all the way down to street level!

That’s been the plan since they introduced it.

 

[Lepton]

Apple maps is terrible. Only use when you want to not find where you need to go.

The maps are great, the routing is fine and always has been, around here at least. But the big problem with Maps? Its database of locations! It was awful, but has improved over time to merely fair. Many places missing, some places off by a block or three, searches often find far away places when you are looking for somewhere nearby. Google is much better at finding places.
[doublepost=1525187385][/doublepost]

I feel like Google is doing today whatever Apple will start doing in 5 years

The best thing that Google Maps does that Apple Maps doesn't? Offline maps! Apple Maps caches the route, but Google lets you cache a whole area. Incredibly handy if you are in an area with poor connectivity.

 

[dreyp82]

Ive also never have any issues with Apple Maps, its good and keeps improving.

 

[jimbobb24]

Street view is crucial. I love this Google feature. Apple is sadly way behind.

Also - why don't google and Apple allow people to add roads or correct the identify of buildings. Crowdsourcing some of this info seems like an easy fix.

 

[aloshka]

Apple Maps is only adequate for rural areas with nothing to display.

https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat

One of the biggest reasons I use google maps. Really great to find exact building that I need to be at.

Apple maps feels like Tom Tom from like 2005. Very little detail, the names of businesses are off from where they are located. Especially downtown Denver.

All that and I can search for things in google maps like "Main Draw OHV" and it finds it. It's a trailhead, not even an address. Search for the same thing in Apple Maps, you'll get somewhere between someones house or a lake, neither are correct.

Yes, everyone's mileage is different, but I'm saying why I like Google Maps. Wish it worked in carplay though...

 

[lostngone]

I Spy. . . . On I-70 West bound, just outside of Wheeling WVA on 4/28/18.
View attachment 760172 View attachment 760171 View attachment 760170

No license plates?

 

[MacBH928]

The global maps thing sis a massive project and I think instead of each company trying to build their own global map maybe they should have a coalition of mutiple companies working together to make an open-source free to use maps and then each can build their own GUI and features over it. It will speed things up, save money, and everyone benefits.

Also, if Apple wants the maps to improve it should make it availible to non Apple users like Windows and Android. Not everything should be Apple only.

 

[AbSoluTc]

Oh, Joe, I just found the photo you tried to isolate the car from… you poor, poor thing; that is what we in the image manipulation business call "****".

Here, have this on the house:

View attachment 760138

And if you wanted those original shadows:

View attachment 760139

Nice job man! Just noticed the car has actual wheels now! Apple maps is looking up!

 

[dk001]

It is amazing to me the number of people spouting off on here about nothing they understand. Compairing mobile LiDAR to the raw georeferenced imagery that Google and others collect should not even be in the same category. This new map data is another example of Apple not being the first to do something, but the best once it finally does it.

And BTW... collecting that much MTLS data (mobile terrestrial LiDAR scanning) in that amount of time is one hell of a feat. You have to realize that this MTLS data is terabytes of data collected each day compared to gigabytes of just imagery. These cars have racked servers in the back of them and huge hard drives that you have to change out multiple times throughout the day.

One example of the things you can do with LiDAR data is the new underground maps of subway stations. You can go in, scan an area and build a 3D georeferenced model of millions on x, y & z data points to create anything.

Nice but when will we as users, if ever, see the results? My single biggest complaint with AM is accuracy and directions. Not seeing how this effort is going to change things.
[doublepost=1525207134][/doublepost]

The maps are great, the routing is fine and always has been, around here at least. But the big problem with Maps? Its database of locations! It was awful, but has improved over time to merely fair. Many places missing, some places off by a block or three, searches often find far away places when you are looking for somewhere nearby. Google is much better at finding places.
[doublepost=1525187385][/doublepost]
The best thing that Google Maps does that Apple Maps doesn't? Offline maps! Apple Maps caches the route, but Google lets you cache a whole area. Incredibly handy if you are in an area with poor connectivity.

Not sure why but at times I have found AM to search regionally working in to my location while GM starts at the displayed map location and works out.
AM has all too often given me a distant local instead of the closest.

 

[ackmondual]

This could still be a worthy effort. Early on (around the Iphone4 times), such users were buying 3rd party maps. This could go a good ways towards keeping iOS users within the ecosystem.

 

[riverfreak]

We don’t need another Google Maps! Focus on better products please!

I 100% disagree. We need more competition, not less. If you are willing to hand over all of your location aware requests to google, fantastic. I, for one, am not, and welcome a viable competitor to the space.

 

[ROGmaster]

You must have extraordinarily high standards for what's "adequate" in mapping software. In those comparisons on that blog, Apple Maps is perfectly fine. Yes, Google's maps are so detailed you can see building shapes, AC units on the tops of roofs, and even bay windows on houses, but that's detail that's not really required to navigate.

There's also the concept of too much detail, which can slow down users by getting too cluttered. If I just want to glance at something quickly, I just need streets, street names, and landmarks. The AC units on the tops of buildings isn't helpful for navigation--in fact, it's detail that actually gets in the way due to cluttering the screen.

You are really tying hard.
Having a detailed map is now a problem. LoL
Google Maps has been evolving this way because that the next natural step. People often search for a building not for a street, being able to accurately find a building on a map and be sure that that's where you need to arrive is quite an advantage.

Now if you lower the standards considerably and you only need to find a street or a city I guess Apple Maps is fine.

 

[dk001]

You are really tying hard.
Having a detailed map is now a problem. LoL
Google Maps has been evolving this way because that the next natural step. People often search for a building not for a street, being able to accurately find a building on a map and be sure that that's where you need to arrive is quite an advantage.

Now if you lower the standards considerably and you only need to find a street or a city I guess Apple Maps is fine.

And the next step already in progress involves internal navigation.

 

[ActionableMango]

You are really tying hard.
Having a detailed map is now a problem. LoL
Google Maps has been evolving this way because that the next natural step. People often search for a building not for a street, being able to accurately find a building on a map and be sure that that's where you need to arrive is quite an advantage.

Now if you lower the standards considerably and you only need to find a street or a city I guess Apple Maps is fine.

You're misunderstanding me. The post I responded to said Apple maps wasn't "adequate", then used detail like AC units of the rooftops of skyscrapers of Google Maps as proof. That's what I took issue with.

Is Apple Maps really inadequate before that? Was Google Maps inadequate before there was that level of detail? How can you even see the roofs of skyscrapers for that to be a helpful navigational aid?

 

[prasand]

You can't have a self driving car that relies on recorded data, because recorded data will always be outdated. imagine they record a street, then a passenger crossing with a traffic light is added near a school, and the self-driving car, not aware of traffic lights and crossing crashes into a bunch of kids.

No where did I state or insinuate that they would rely on recorded data. It's merely a data point, not the core. Recorded data has merit when augmented by live data. For example, take a still image, overlay a moving image, remove the overlapping details, to isolate / target the differences.

--- edit ---

Additional thought: the ability to recreate street environments causes me to realize that this could also be used for augmented reality. It's one thing to place a 3D object on a surface at a certain distance, and another to create an object in a fixed position, that everyone can see in the same exact position no matter where they stand; without tile markers.

Theoretically, one can even visually erase real world objects with this kind of data. Imagine a video game character is given parameters to grab the nearest stop sign or pole, tear it from the floor, and swing it at their opponent. As the sign is pulled up, AR goggles overlay data from behind the real world pole, placing it in front of the pole, so that the pole disappears. Everyone watching the battle, sees the same thing, but from different angles / distances.

 

[ROGmaster]

You're misunderstanding me. The post I responded to said Apple maps wasn't "adequate", then used detail like AC units of the rooftops of skyscrapers of Google Maps as proof. That's what I took issue with.

Is Apple Maps really inadequate before that? Was Google Maps inadequate before there was that level of detail? How can you even see the roofs of skyscrapers for that to be a helpful navigational aid?

I didn't misunderstand anything.
You are continuing with the same deceptive claims. The article contains way more info than simply "AC units of the rooftops of skyscrapers". But no wonder that crumb of information from the article is the main thing you concentrate on.

 

[Musocat]

I use Apple Maps daily and it works great. I also used it for transit in Paris for a couple weeks, and it was perfect - it beat google maps by finding the best Metro station exits that my google-using friends didn't know about too.

I've never had to resort to putting google anything on my iPhone.

 

[FelixDerKater]

How often do they update the data? We have a few new roads that have been around 6 months and reflect in Google Maps, but still nothing for Apple Maps.

 

[tshaffertodd]

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.

Image via MacRumors forum member AngerDanger​

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

[doublepost=1529441733][/doublepost]Yesterday evening I saw the van go by rather fast and the driver was not driving but holding an ipad type device looking at it while going really fast- did I say that already! Lees Summit, MO- suburb of KC, MO

 

[dontwalkhand]

[doublepost=1529441733][/doublepost]Yesterday evening I saw the van go by rather fast and the driver was not driving but holding an ipad type device looking at it while going really fast- did I say that already! Lees Summit, MO- suburb of KC, MO

If this was truly an Apple car, it wouldn’t be an “iPad like device” rather, just a regular plain Jane iPad.

Just like how on their Apple campus everything is done on an iPad or iPhone.