still cant make bike ride routes..
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Apple Rolls Out Updated Maps Interface in Australia
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Move to the Netherlands, where there’s a cycling path next to basically every road
Apple Maps remains a broken product.
As an Australian reading this, I thought I’d give Apple Maps another shot. Upon opening the app, it tells me that there’s a cafe a few doors down that I’m rather certain does not exist.
A quick Google search tells me that a (now defunct) cafe with the same name and street address once existed, but in a suburb 16 minutes drive from here.
So my first user experience yielded a result that was incorrect in two dimensions: (1) 5.5km geographically, and (2) at least one year stale.
This does not inspire confidence. How can I trust this product?
As an Australian Software Engineer who works on product in the Bay Area and just happens to be visiting home, I’m quite aware of the US and West Coast biases of big tech.
I understand too well the bias towards one-size-fits-all solutions. Apple Maps undoubtable works well while traversing the Mission District. But it’s abysmal where most of your customers (and revenue) lives.
I understand it’s a difficult problem.
I understand why it was initially rushed out to meet the competitive pressure of Google owning geospatial. But it’s been almost ten years now. As a customer, I want viable choice other than Google.
I understand that PMs and Ops trawl these forums. Apple, please - be better.
As an Australian reading this, I thought I’d give Apple Maps another shot. Upon opening the app, it tells me that there’s a cafe a few doors down that I’m rather certain does not exist.
A quick Google search tells me that a (now defunct) cafe with the same name and street address once existed, but in a suburb 16 minutes drive from here.
So my first user experience yielded a result that was incorrect in two dimensions: (1) 5.5km geographically, and (2) at least one year stale.
This does not inspire confidence. How can I trust this product?
As an Australian Software Engineer who works on product in the Bay Area and just happens to be visiting home, I’m quite aware of the US and West Coast biases of big tech.
I understand too well the bias towards one-size-fits-all solutions. Apple Maps undoubtable works well while traversing the Mission District. But it’s abysmal where most of your customers (and revenue) lives.
I understand it’s a difficult problem.
I understand why it was initially rushed out to meet the competitive pressure of Google owning geospatial. But it’s been almost ten years now. As a customer, I want viable choice other than Google.
I understand that PMs and Ops trawl these forums. Apple, please - be better.
This is going to vary from place to place. For my house at least, Apple Maps has "look around" that's a couple of years old, but Google Maps is at least 5 years old, judging by the car in the driveway I barely remember owning.
This made me laugh, great comment! People were saying they would be asking people in those areas to see if it works. I'm Australian but I'm in Canada - I can clearly go check it out for myself
Feel free to show me any mapping service that is perfectly accurate - doesn't exist.
Near me Google has a steep dirt hiking trail up to a lookout listed on the map as vage incorrectly positioned street for example - while Apple correctly lists it as a footpath and the position is accurate. Nearby that there's a golf course which is open at 6am tomorrow according to Google, and doesn't exist according to Apple. Apple is correct, it shut down years ago and is pending government approval to be re-zoned as something else.
The satellite photo of that golf course looks about 6 years old in Google, while it's months old in the Apple version. There's a road going through the old course on both (built about three years ago), but it's in the wrong position and missing roundabouts in Google but accurate with Apple. The non-satellite map version is just a green blob in Google while Apple maps the gardens down to individual trees, sand traps, water traps, even the various different lengths of grass are visible as changing shades of green - all based on an impressively realistic machine learning vectorisation of the satellite photo.
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Here’s hoping that more detailed and feature rich Apple maps expand to more regions. Good news for Australians.
Lol. Yeah, there is a difference between driving ON the highway and NEXT TO the highway.
Easy to remember: If the street is red, you can cycle on that.
This is why I use both. Because neither are 100% accurate.
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Apple's POI are much worse than Google's, sadly true. I really hope they address this, as it's long overdue. One time a couple years ago I tried to find sushi places in Manhattan and Apple Maps gave me three that were out of business, moved, or just entirely wrong. I think it's gotten a bit better than it used to be, but it could very much be improved.
I think Apple Maps is excellent for wayfinding, though. I've used it in quite a few parts of the US and in Spain and it's done very well for me. When I'm driving, it usually estimates my ETA quite accurately, and transit directions have been steadily improving, at least where I live.
But because places are sometimes missing or wrong, I too often find myself looking up a place in Google Maps and then using Apple Maps to get directions -- mainly because I don't want Google following me any more than it already is.
All that said, it does really seem they're putting a lot more attention into Maps lately, so I'm hopeful they'll start improving their POI and get closer to being totally reliable.
Yes I see Brisbane city has 2020 bikeways. Also noticed that Tasmania is pretty new for Apple Maps but is absolutely ancient in Google Maps.
This is so limited, sat imagery resolution outside a very limited area is terrible and out of date and the whole thing is sooo slow to roll out it is embarrassing. It isn’t something you want to mention to acquaintances. Thing with satellite imagery as at work I can look at hi res 80 cm resolution updated on a daily basis. Maps is so bad in comparison. I do not expect what I get at work, but more frequent updates would be pretty good.
Look up seems good. The lookup photo outside my street would be about three years old at the peak of the drought. And has my nephews old TT coupe out the front, which helps me know when the photo car went past. Look up also goes down the bike paths in the park opposite our house which is pretty good. Those imagery are obviously a lot more recent as the drought is over and everything is green, reverting to brown grass when you get back to the road. And there is pretty good coverage. In the Gulf, Doomadgee, Burketown Normanton and Karumba have look up, Kowanyama and Weipa does not.
What would be good if the look up binoculars appeared on the satellite imagery as well as the map. Just sayin’.
Look up seems good. The lookup photo outside my street would be about three years old at the peak of the drought. And has my nephews old TT coupe out the front, which helps me know when the photo car went past. Look up also goes down the bike paths in the park opposite our house which is pretty good. Those imagery are obviously a lot more recent as the drought is over and everything is green, reverting to brown grass when you get back to the road. And there is pretty good coverage. In the Gulf, Doomadgee, Burketown Normanton and Karumba have look up, Kowanyama and Weipa does not.
What would be good if the look up binoculars appeared on the satellite imagery as well as the map. Just sayin’.
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It’s called “Explore”, and since I live in SF, I can tell you it’s both ugly & relatively inaccurate (especially for building shapes). I’ve never used it until you just mentioned it. I don’t expect I’ll use it ever again. Be thankful it’s not available in your area.
I saw the cars driving around West End collecting images over three years ago so that tracks.
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Looks good to me in Perth. Can jump down into the street view mode and now have 3D models for all the buildings where I live near CBD. Not sure if this is a related change or not, but CarPlay guidance now also talks about "at the lights" etc (and it shows you an icon on-screen for traffic lights, too).
that doesn't mean you can have routing guidance
(I know as I am from The Netherlands)
True.
9 years old (according to Wikipedia).
But I imagine they worked on it before it was brought out in the wild.
Even at the horrible substandard quality by Apple norms, it must have taken them some time.
We might ask Scott...