Apple Paying Freelancers to Improve the Accuracy of Apple Maps

[Small White Car]

VA-3000 was given a new road number in Feb 2012.

Apparently 5 years and 4 months isn't quite enough time for Apple to fix this.

Maybe with these freelancers' help Apple will be able to update changes within 6 years.

Whoopie.


EDIT: I just checked, apparently the road changed before Apple maps even existed. So it's actually never been right.

 

[Carlanga]

"many iPhone users still consider to be inferior to Google Maps,"
Its not a consideration, but a plain fact, apple maps is years behind google maps.

 

[Pamela5]

My main problem with maps is that the gps doesn't keep up with my driving speed (normal mph). So I will be in the middle of making a left hand turn when maps tells me to make a turn. It makes it unusable for me.

 

[Stefan1968]

I picked up a new Audi in Germany 2 weeks ago. I drove 2000 kilometers through Czech Republic, Austria, Italy & Switzerland for a week. The car is a US model so the built in GPS didn't work. They provided me with a Garmin unit but since the car has Apple Car play and I had internet, I thought I use the Maps app instead of the Garmin.
I have to say Maps is by far the worst navigation app ever. Not only the interface is poor and simple but the directions are just plain limited. There are no "lanes" like in Google Maps, no points of interest along the route, no icons to show you gas stations or rest areas or multiple destinations but the worst thing is if you make a mistake an miss an exit, the recalculation of the route seldom happens, it gets stuck on where you were and it doesn't correct itself. Also the accuracy of Internet based GPS is horrible. I got lost 4 times and when I mean lost, I mean I had to pull out the Garmin GPS to get back into civilization. Europe is not like the US where u have street numbers and cross avenues. One wrong exit and you end up in the middle of nowhere... I wasted a long time and drove dozens of extra miles just getting back on the road since Maps was so off it was asking me to turn where there was no turn or tell me I was in the middle of a lake or 10 blocks away from my actual location on a big city.
Lucky for me I had the Garmin to save me but I will never, ever use Maps again. Apple should just forget about it and put their efforts on other things.

Strange... first of all I think Apple Maps is not as good as Google Maps. Besides that I've used it for a few years almost every day. It gets me where I needed to be. I've traveled through Europe (Netherlands, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark) and no problems.

Sure POI are less then Google Maps. POI show up when you press the ETA then you can select POI along the route.

Again I think Google Maps is superior and I think your story is true but it's not my experience in the past few years.

 

[NickD73]

Apple is well past it's best days. Sure the Apple sheep will continue to shell out more and more each cycle, so the earnings will continue to impress, but rational folks like myself will move on to better products. Apple Maps is awful. Anyone who disagrees simply hasn't used google maps, or is in denial.

 

[gnasher729]

WTF Apple, you are so rich and Maps is one of your premier apps and you're relying on some 3rd party taskrabbit app that pays people 54 cents to improve the data on it?

That's exactly what you would pay some third parties for. It's also the kind of thing that some people enjoy doing as a hobby, not as work.

 

[Vjosullivan]

We never heard bad things about Tom Tom's data in their own GPS devices... did we?

I just wonder why early Apple Maps was so bad.

The Tom Tom data isn't bad but it's very much oriented towards car dashboard route finding apps. That's fine as a starting point for producing a general purpose map application but isn't sufficient. Inaccuracies in non-route related features on a Tom Tom map are of limited consequence but can be glaring with displayed on a general purpose map.

Justin O'Beirne recently wrote an excellent article comparing Apple and Google maps in great detail, using a number of locations over an extended period of time. Well worth reading, one of the best written articles on computing in general that I've read this year. https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-apple-maps

 

[rikscha]

Probably US only.. whenever I'm asking to go to Waterloo in London, it wants me to fly to Australia

 

[4004]

So, where do I sign up? I am already doing similar stuff for free in GMaps and OSM, might as well help fix something else (Apple tries to use OSM data anyway)

 

[jacksmith21006]

I hope Apple realizes this soon before Google Maps pulls too far ahead for Apple to ever catch up.

Think that has already happened. I was recently traveling in an unfamiliar city in the US and the difference was really obvious. There is the just asking for directions is just a lot better with Google Maps. But once you have your destination the lane to get into with Google Maps makes a huge difference for me. To the point I really can no longer use Apple maps.

Also, Google has finally added speed limit signs which is also something helpful.

I think the big issues is the business model differences between Apple and Google and how does Apple generate revenue to cover the expense of Apple maps to make it competitive. I fear Siri will continue to have the same issue.
[doublepost=1496492738][/doublepost]

Had Google not purposely kept turn by turn navigating away from iOS it would still be the default map today

I do not think that was what happened. I believe it was the disagreement on data sharing. Google does not cripple software on iOS has been my experience. Does not seem how Google rolls.

 

[Keirasplace]

VA-3000 was given a new road number in Feb 2012.

Apparently 5 years and 4 months isn't quite enough time for Apple to fix this.

Maybe with these freelancers' help Apple will be able to update changes within 6 years.

Whoopie.


EDIT: I just checked, apparently the road changed before Apple maps even existed. So it's actually never been right.

right... Got a Google error that's 8 years old and reported TWICE, but hey your anecdote is 100% more relevant than mine. In fact, a road that has changed 15 years ago still doesn't exist on Google"'s map on my neighborhood. No clue why that is since it exists on mapquest and Apple Maps and even on the sat map of Google!

 

[Carlanga]

Apple is well past it's best days. Sure the Apple sheep will continue to shell out more and more each cycle, so the earnings will continue to impress, but rational folks like myself will move on to better products. Apple Maps is awful. Anyone who disagrees simply hasn't used google maps, or is in denial.

I will continue to buy an iPhone since you have longer lasting hardware, more app choices and better quality apps, but the good thing about iOS apps is that you don't have to use their oficial app anymore and you can do like I do. Just download google maps and use that one more times than apple maps.

 

[MedRed]

Apple is well past it's best days. Sure the Apple sheep will continue to shell out more and more each cycle, so the earnings will continue to impress, but rational folks like myself will move on to better products. Apple Maps is awful. Anyone who disagrees simply hasn't used google maps, or is in denial.

Apple maps is awful, but I have to wonder, why are you still here? Every post is a negative troll post.

 

[Phil in ocala]

Heck, it doesn't even get my home address right. I'll be sitting on the couch and it always says I'm 5 minutes to home on the destinations widget. I disabled it because of that. Whereas Google Maps is spot on to our mailbox.

When people need directions to the house I always tell them not to use Apple Maps. Or go by landmarks.

This is in Kansas too, nothing special. The address just shows up nearly a mile away from where it actually is. I've submitted requests to fix it but it hasn't helped any thus far. So no surprise with this.

___________________
Garmin maps on the auto GPS on the Nuvi products should be renamed: Wild Goose Chases....inaccurate at best.

 

[2010mini]

Think that has already happened. I was recently traveling in an unfamiliar city in the US and the difference was really obvious. There is the just asking for directions is just a lot better with Google Maps. But once you have your destination the lane to get into with Google Maps makes a huge difference for me. To the point I really can no longer use Apple maps.

Also, Google has finally added speed limit signs which is also something helpful.

I think the big issues is the business model differences between Apple and Google and how does Apple generate revenue to cover the expense of Apple maps to make it competitive. I fear Siri will continue to have the same issue.
[doublepost=1496492738][/doublepost]

I do not think that was what happened. I believe it was the disagreement on data sharing. Google does not cripple software on iOS has been my experience. Does not seem how Google rolls.

No that is exactly what Google did. Maybe you don't remember the map app on iOS up to v.7

It did not include turn by turn even though google had it for android. It was a decision at the time to keep that function from iOS.

 

[Small White Car]

right... Got a Google error that's 8 years old and reported TWICE, but hey your anecdote is 100% more relevant than mine.

Oh, wow. Is Macrumors out of server space? They're going to erase all of the comments except for one "most relevant" winner?

What a bummer.

 

[NinjaHERO]

I'm sure lots of people would help for free. Just make it easier for me to tell you when the route or information isn't right. We're here to help Apple.

 

[Tech198]

I think this sux... Perhaps i don't travel long distances to notice.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

I'd be interested to try this. I've noticed numerous inaccuracies in Apple Maps compared to Google Maps, just in the areas within a 10 mile radius of my home. They're minor inaccuracies (showing a road as going through when it doesn't, not marking a road as private, showing a road as straight when it's curved, etc.) but they're something Google has over Apple.

 

[baryon]

What Apple needs to figure out is not just accuracy, but it's the most basic thing necessary for maps: understanding your search query. Addresses can be written in many different ways and there is no excuse for Maps not understanding them unless you type it in in a very specific rigid way. Also, if I type in a street name, and my map is zoomed into one city, then it should NOT search all over the damn globe and give me some random street in China that happens to match what I typed in.

It's very important that the search field uses "common sense". This is something Google is very good at, and Apple really sucks at.

 

[Macaholic868]

$0.54 per task and no more than 600 tasks per week. So the most profitable company in existence won't shell out more than $324 a week to somebody trying to improve Maps? No wonder it's still so inferior to Google Maps. That's a joke. Just like most of its recent products.

 

[kdarling]

No that is exactly what Google did. Maybe you don't remember the map app on iOS up to v.7

It did not include turn by turn even though google had it for android. It was a decision at the time to keep that function from iOS.

Actually, there's no evidence that Google kept navigation just to give Android an advantage. Nor was Apple against Google gathering data. Heck, Apple has made billions selling Google the prime search spot, plus requesting navigation instructions in the first places tells Google everything. Both claims arose from fan sites.

Instead, according to insiders, Google asked for a couple of things in return for adding navigation:

1. Branding on their maps (they used to say "Google" in the corner but Apple apparently wanted that gone), and more say in what was shown.

2. The ability to offer their Google Latitude service. That's the one which let users opt into sharing their location (general or specific) with friends and family. However, as is well known, Apple dislikes any competition with their own core services, and Family Sharing and Location came out in iOS 8.

 

[Bacillus]

"many iPhone users still consider to be inferior to Google Maps,"
Its not a consideration, but a plain fact, apple maps is years behind google maps.

Frankly, it's a global disaster
That nobody's to be blamed for (now that Scott Forstall is out...)
Offering this repair fee feels like Warren Buffet paying you a dime upon returning his lost wallet with hunderds of thousands of dollars in it.

 

[PaulRustad007]

You get what you pay for. Cheapen out paying only 54 cents and you will get that level of maps data. Either go all in or replace apple maps with Google Maps/Waze.

In my experience, Apple Maps is better and more accurate than Waze. Waze always takes me on the longest most convoluted route where as Apple get me there directly, in the shortest amount of time and or distance.

 

[oldwatery]

Apple has a building the size of a city. What the hell are they doing in there? Not building computers that's for sure. SIRI...not that either. Maps....hahahaha...a complete joke..it sends me in absolutely the opposite directions many times.
Apple is rotten to the core right now.
But hey...we got Carpool Kareoke!