What happened to Apple Maps? It’s horrible and “wrong”.

[mikelets456]

Hello All,
Not sure if this is posted in the right place. But since updating to 18.XX Apple Maps has been horrible. It’s been sending me and my wife on crazy out of the way routes, showing travel times of 10-40 minutes longer than Google maps. This morning my wife called me in a panic saying “maps is showing me it will take 1 hour and 32 minutes to get to work”. It was re-routing her. I told her to use google maps…it showed “51 minutes to work” and her normal route.
Anyone else experiencing this behavior from Maps? I used to swear by Apple Maps now I avoid it at all costs…I lost all trust in it.

Me- 15PM
Wife- 15
Both on 18.3.1

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Was it ever "right?" I have periodically re-tried it since it launched and generally found it to retain its biggest flaw- bad data, leading me to miss the target destination more often than the generally-more-reliable Google Maps.

As is, when I need to get to where I want to go, I use GM. When I have some time to kill and willing to take a chance on AM finally getting it right, I might re-try AM.

IMO: AM is "prettier" but GM is more accurate.

Based on your post, I would guess is was "more right" for you in the past and now it's got new problems. No surprise with generational OS updates. I tend to wait for .5 or .6 updates these days... a replacement for the old approach of awaiting .2 or .3. Jumping in early just triggers what seems to be endless beta test discoveries. See seemingly countless threads talking about this & that not working right now.

 

[Speed38]

I agree. Here's what I discovered after checking on a screwy route on which Apple sent me.

Example - imagine a square.
Your car is at the top, right-hand corner.
You want to go to the bottom right-hand corner.
I put in the address of the store in the bottom right-hand corner, which is due south.
Apple maps send me to the top left-hand corner (west), then to the bottom left-hand corner (south) then to the bottom right-hand corner (east). An 8-mile route which should have been a two-mile route.
I dropped Apple Maps as my default and installed Waze and stepped through all its multiple setting and it is working just fine.
A trillion $$$ corporation and they can't get Maps and Siri to work.

BTW - I absolutely refuse to use anything associated with Google.

 

[cbpoint]

BTW - I absolutely refuse to use anything associated with Google.

Waze is owned by google.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Speed38, you might want to do a search for "Who owns Waze?"

#4 beat me to it. So consider this an online version of the game of Jeopardy.

 

[Speed38]

Well, damn! Screwed again. Which do you prefer then, Waze or Google? Is one better than the other?

 

[russell_314]

Waze is owned by google.

Yeah, that was unfortunate. It was its own thing, but got brought out by Google. The problem is mapping data isn’t cheap. Google is King when it comes to collecting data. It’s not surprising that they do best for map data. Apple doesn’t take map collection data nearly as serious.

My car has built in GPS and it uses mapping data from Google. I suspect there is some financial arrangement involved.

The problem here sounds like bad traffic data. These mapping programs will route you around gridlock traffic so if it’s taking you on a wild goose chase, it probably thinks the road it should go on has dead stop traffic.

As to my choice of what maps to use it depends on the situation. If I kind of know where I’m going, but just want a reminder to turn or confirmation, I use Apple Maps. If I’m going on a trip or I have no clue where I’m going I use Google maps or Waze. I kind of like the interface of Waze better. If I’m my car that has built in GPS that I just use the car’s navigation system.

 

[Speed38]

Yeah, that was unfortunate. It was its own thing, but got brought out by Google. The problem is mapping data isn’t cheap. Google is King when it comes to collecting data. It’s not surprising that they do best for map data. Apple doesn’t take map collection data nearly as serious.

My car has built in GPS and it uses mapping data from Google. I suspect there is some financial arrangement involved.

The problem here sounds like bad traffic data. These mapping programs will route you around gridlock traffic so if it’s taking you on a wild goose chase, it probably thinks the road it should go on has dead stop traffic.

As to my choice of what maps to use it depends on the situation. If I kind of know where I’m going, but just want a reminder to turn or confirmation, I use Apple Maps. If I’m going on a trip or I have no clue where I’m going I use Google maps or Waze. I kind of like the interface of Waze better. If I’m my car that has built in GPS that I just use the car’s navigation system.

thanks, think I will stick with Waze then since it is set up to my preferences.

 

[HouseLannister]

MapQuest would like to remind you that it still exists. I don't recommend you use it though.

 

[russell_314]

MapQuest would like to remind you that it still exists. I don't recommend you use it though.

Wait what? 😳

 

[mikelets456]

Was it ever "right?" I have periodically re-tried it since it launched and generally found it to retain it's biggest flaw- bad data, leading me to miss the target destination more often than the generally-more-reliable Google Maps.

As is, when I need to get to where I want to go, I use GM. When I have some time to kill and willing to take a chance on AM finally getting it right, I might re-try AM.

IMO: AM is "prettier" but GM is more accurate.

Based on your post, I would guess is was "more right" for you in the past and now it's got new problems. No surprise with generational OS updates. I tend to wait for .5 or .6 updates these days... a replacement for the old approach of awaiting .2 or .3. Jumping in early just triggers what seems to be endless beta test discoveries. See seemingly countless threads talking about this & that not working right now.

In iOS 17.XX that’s all I used I thought it was every bit as good and it had a much cleaner and “real” map look to it. Also roads were labeled much better and easier to read.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Hopefully, Apple will get around to fixing whatever is broken in 18. I fully agree it is "prettier" than Google Maps... but I find the latter is still the more accurate map. When I need to get to the right place and can't afford to waste time, I use GM instead of AM. I wish I could have as much confidence in AM but it's just let me down too many times. I'll keep trying it from time to time but only when I can afford to arrive at the wrong destination and then course correct with GM if necessary.

 

[I7guy]

Yeah, that was unfortunate. It was its own thing, but got brought out by Google. The problem is mapping data isn’t cheap. Google is King when it comes to collecting data. It’s not surprising that they do best for map data. Apple doesn’t take map collection data nearly as serious.

My car has built in GPS and it uses mapping data from Google. I suspect there is some financial arrangement involved.

The problem here sounds like bad traffic data. These mapping programs will route you around gridlock traffic so if it’s taking you on a wild goose chase, it probably thinks the road it should go on has dead stop traffic.

As to my choice of what maps to use it depends on the situation. If I kind of know where I’m going, but just want a reminder to turn or confirmation, I use Apple Maps. If I’m going on a trip or I have no clue where I’m going I use Google maps or Waze. I kind of like the interface of Waze better. If I’m my car that has built in GPS that I just use the car’s navigation system.

Even though Teslas use google maps have their own sets of peculiarities. One of them is it hates left hands turns across traffic for the final destination. I never realized it until I went somewhere where I knew the route but had navigation on. It took me on a slightly roundabout route where I made a right into the business. But it would have been faster to go the route that made a left across traffic.

Then I read about this on one of the forums such as TMC and then it clicked for me.

When I’m in my other car I use Waze. Waze tries to get you there the fastest way possible. But if you want to do social media and searching for POIs google maps is your app. I also found poi searching is imo, very good on Apple Maps.

Sometimes I double check the route against Apple Maps and haven’t found any significant issues with the routing.

 

[russell_314]

Even though Teslas use google maps have their own sets of peculiarities. One of them is it hates left hands turns across traffic for the final destination.

I will look for this. I’ve done this myself if I know it’s in a crazy busy spot. I’ll go down to the light and make a U turn

 

[ThrowerGB]

Interesting, I've used Apple Maps exclusively for many years. I've never had any of these problems. I did use Waze for a while after it came out because it had some new features. I can't remember but didn't Waze have a function that allowed people to mention traffic problems?

 

[Tagbert]

I haven’t seen any problem with it. I use Apple Maps most weekdays to check which route has more traffic. Haven’t seen any differences and I have been running the 18.x betas, too.

For me, it has been many years since I felt that I was getting a better experience on Google Maps. GM hasn’t improved but AM really has. I’m sure that there are places where the map data is better on one service or another but overall, they are in parity for me.

 

[noanker]

Apple Maps is considerably better than what it used to be, although there is definitely room for improvement.

Google Maps isn't an option when one is attempting to eliminate reliance on anything Google.

 

[SebCohen]

Is Siri the engine running AM? 😎

 

[chrono1081]

Was it ever "right?" I have periodically re-tried it since it launched and generally found it to retain its biggest flaw- bad data, leading me to miss the target destination more often than the generally-more-reliable Google Maps.

I think this depends where you live. Where I live its' the complete opposite, Google Maps has been trash since roughly 2013/2014 and Apple Maps is the accurate one.

 

[Snørrbjørg]

Even though Teslas use google maps have their own sets of peculiarities.

Tesla only use the maps for show on the monitor. Routing is done by Teslas own algoritms.

 

[jzuena]

I use a third party app called Magic Earth. It was one of the few third party apps to support CarPlay at the time I started using it. It lets you download maps ahead of time, which came in handy last week when we were in St. Martin. I do also use Apple Maps and Waze on occasion, but my default navigation app is Magic Earth.

 

[bransoj]

Interesting, I've used Apple Maps exclusively for many years. I've never had any of these problems. I did use Waze for a while after it came out because it had some new features. I can't remember but didn't Waze have a function that allowed people to mention traffic problems?

Yes it does although both Apple Maps and Google Maps have these features now as well. I dont commute as much these days as i'm 10mins from work but i used to do an hour each way and i had a shortcut set up that would ask me to choose if i was going home or to work and then would initially open Waze but then would open Apple Maps and set the directions running in that. I would then drive with Apple Maps directing me but as Waze was running in the background you would get notifications from it for anything coming up. Worked well as a bit of a best of both worlds in that you had the much nicer looking Apple Maps but user generated data from Waze which i hated the look of and also wasnt convinced about the routing it did.

I would sometimes check things with Google Maps to see if it agreed with Apple Maps as on occasions one would update faster than the other with traffic issues, road closures etc but generally around here there tends not to be much between them.

The main occasion i sometimes use Google Maps is if i'm looking for a specific business etc as Apple sometimes gets the entrance to the place not quite right but on those occasions i will try to report it as incorrect if i remember.

 

[1rottenapple]

I agree. Here's what I discovered after checking on a screwy route on which Apple sent me.

Example - imagine a square.
Your car is at the top, right-hand corner.
You want to go to the bottom right-hand corner.
I put in the address of the store in the bottom right-hand corner, which is due south.
Apple maps send me to the top left-hand corner (west), then to the bottom left-hand corner (south) then to the bottom right-hand corner (east). An 8-mile route which should have been a two-mile route.
I dropped Apple Maps as my default and installed Waze and stepped through all its multiple setting and it is working just fine.
A trillion $$$ corporation and they can't get Maps and Siri to work.

BTW - I absolutely refuse to use anything associated with Google.

Waze is owned by google. And Waze data feeds google maps. The police trap alerts from Waze gets mirrored to google maps. Just use Mapquest.

 

[TgeekB]

I use Apple Maps without issue. Make sure you don’t have some setting like “avoid tolls” or “avoid highways” checked.