Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

https://www.justinobeirne.com/apple-maps-acceleration

by chenglou • 5 years ago

153 117 5 years ago

This article is from last year but the latest iOS 15 updates show how mature Apple maps has become (see https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-maps/). It’s not just at parity but actually better than Google maps. It has beautiful rendering and easy readability, and I haven’t encountered odd routing issues for a couple years now. The added privacy is a welcome bonus. The only thing missing is a way to report police presence like on Waze.

I’ve been impressed by Apple’s pace and wish there was more I could read about their engineering and product journey for the maps product.

aquir• 5 years ago

This is might be true but only if you live the US. In the UK, Apple Maps is not par with Google Maps unfortunately.

Doctor_Fegg2• 5 years ago

But then, if you live in the UK, Google Maps is not par with Ordnance Survey, or in many places, OpenStreetMap.

(This depends, obviously, on what you want from a map. I'm not a motorist.)

larrysalibra• 5 years ago

It's not the UK, but in Hong Kong on iOS 15, Apple Maps now automatically taps you on the wrist (apple watch) right before it's time to get off the public bus at your stop. It is freakishly accurate.

deergomoo2• 5 years ago

While the maps themselves are excellent, it's a shame you lose out on Google's frankly ridiculous business data. I've had Apple Maps route me to a café that was temporarily closed, while Google Maps knew it was closed, for example.

I find I prefer to use Apple Maps for driving because it's just a nicer experience (though that's largely due to having hooks in iOS that Google Maps is not allowed), but I still don't really trust it when walking around a city. I'm in the UK so I'm not sure if it's better in the US, but it's not there yet over here.

pfranz3• 5 years ago

In my experience, Covid has screwed up everybody's data. Apple seems to pull from Foursquare or Yelp or something, but I've seen Google, Apple, Foursquare and Yelp all of the different, incorrect hours. I think some of them have added flags/fields for temporary hours because of it.

Apple and Yelp seem to make it really easy to give them new hours. You can either write them in or just take a photo of the hours and they'll do it. For Apple, you get an alert in about a week that the changes were posted.

Years ago, I noticed Yelp wasn't used much internationally. The well rated-places were often touristy. With Apple, I have noticed "food" won't have many good results in some countries. I feel like the same applies to Google, but since I don't primarily use it I'm not sure its fair to say that.

chedabob• 5 years ago

I think Google's correction workflow helps massively with keeping the data up to date.

I can submit a correction for a misplaced business or wrong opening hours, and it's live on the map within hours, but more often minutes. Recently I had to submit a correction to a typo in a business name to Apple Maps and it took over a week.

webmobdev4• 5 years ago

it's a shame you lose out on Google's frankly ridiculous business data

In India, Apple Maps has compensated for this - they have purchased this data from JustDial.com ... However, Apple Maps still remains inferior to both Google Maps and HERE Maps due to lack of data. It's a Catch-22 for Apple as even if people want to use Apple Maps its poor user experience forces users back to its better competitor and without the users using it, it cannot improve itself. Google Maps is nearly unbeatable in India due to the sheer amount of data it collects every single day from Android Phones and "crowdsourcing" from its users has made it really good at routing - for e.g. in Bangalore's insane traffic, its algorithm is quite good in considering both shortest popular routes + traffic to suggest routes that will take the shortest time to reach a destination. HERE maps is quite good too and is quite popular in India because it allows its maps to be downloaded for offline use. (Google was forced to add this feature too. Apple Maps in India still doesn't have this feature).

reaperducer2• 5 years ago

I've had Apple Maps route me to a café that was temporarily closed, while Google Maps knew it was closed, for example

Both Apple and Google rely heavily on the business owners to self-report their hours.

In my company, we have one of our social media people assigned to this task. Each week he has to check all of our locations on both platforms to make sure the hours being displayed are correct.

Usually they are. Sometimes people will report a location closed because they're just mad about customer service, and he has to change it back. Sometimes our hours will change, and after he's changed them on Apple or Google, the hours will mysteriously revert to the old hours a week later.

The problem you encountered is a mindshare problem. Small businesses like cafes, and even some very large businesses, think Google=Internet. So they only update their information on Google.

COVID made this a lot worse because business owners closing their stores either temporarily or permanently don't really care that much about notifying Google or Apple. They have much more important things to worry about.

mapmap• 5 years ago

You can report things. Even with Siri.

pverghese• 5 years ago

Nowhere close to how accurate Google is in India

gmac• 5 years ago

I'd love to use Apple maps for driving directions, but I just can't get used to its mostly-overhead navigation view. I regularly take wrong turnings when following Apple Maps, which almost never happens with Google Maps or TomTom.

gullevek• 5 years ago

Apple Maps really look nice. But depending where you are the information can be shocking barren. Especially in Japan. They look really great but there is no labels, or anything. And if they are not as well double labeled (english and japanese).

They are amazing compared what crap we got back in 2012 or so when apple maps replaced google maps.

spideymans2• 5 years ago

Can’t speak for elsewhere in the world, but I find Apple’s navigation quality to be at least on par with Google’s here in Canada. Its biggest deficiency for me now is its relatively poor point-of-interest data

bori52• 5 years ago

“Easy readability” on this point I find myself wishing there was a way to make street names and fonts in general bigger in Apple Maps. Also green font on green backgrounds, why ? In terms of planning there is still no way to add multiple routes along the way which would be a nice addition.

reaperducer2• 5 years ago

A lot of Apple products have bad font issues, and Apple Maps is among the worst. There's simply no way anyone at Apple has checked contrast or font size for accessibility in Apple Maps.

Once the road labels were so frustratingly small that I took a screenshot and opened it in Photoshop just to see how small it was. One label was 4px. Another was 6px. How is anyone supposed to read a six pixel tall word?

Here's an example of Apple Maps using a FIVE PIXEL TALL font: https://twitter.com/Reaperducer/status/1277319668194148352

Seriously?

Someone• 5 years ago

_If_ you can live with having larger text in other apps, too, you can do that in the accessibility settings.

AlbertCory2• 5 years ago

Speaking of Waze (which is originally an Israeli company, if you didn't know):

I was in Tel Aviv in 2017 in a rental car at Ben Gurion airport, trying to find the rental car return. The signs all pointed me one way, and Google Maps agreed. I followed them, and got to a place where Google said "your destination is on the left."

I cursed "no, it f&cking isn't!" After much driving around and stopping to ask people, I finally found it. The rental car company had given me a sheet of paper saying where it really was, which I had neglected to look at (never having had a problem before).

I never checked to see if Waze had it right.

Cipater• 5 years ago

It’s not just at parity but actually better than Google maps.

In North America.

Google maps is accurate down to minute details in African countries.

sandgiant• 5 years ago

Perhaps the most noticeable difference between Apple’s old and new maps is all of the vegetation detail Apple has added.

I really don't understand the way they blend forests and fields together. It used to be that forests and grasslands were marked green and agricultural land was white, so you could easily tell the difference. Now they are the same, or nearly the same, color while the difference in landscape is massive. To actually tell the difference now you have to switch to the satellite map.

I don't see how this is adding more detail. If anything it's providing less information.

asutekku• 5 years ago

It makes it prettier since a fields in the aerial view are not aesthetically very pleasing.

echelon• 5 years ago

I still don't get it. Apple is a company people cheer for, yet it continues to accrue substantial and dangerous power.

They don't let you repair devices, install your own software, or run your business unfettered. They spy on your files. They coddle and report to authoritarian governments.

This monopoly is lauded and praised as it continues to get bigger and encompass everything one does.

I don't understand it.

It hurts to watch this.

weikju• 5 years ago

They make stuff people want to buy and overall devices that people can use to get things done. Unpopular opinion around here I know.

deergomoo2• 5 years ago

You're not wrong, but you're making the classic Hacker News mistake by assuming that the average person gives even the slightest crap about any of that stuff—or if they do, that they are directly affected by it.

Apple makes (mostly, with some fairly large asterisks attached) reliable devices, with all the software most people want to run. Most people do not sell apps and therefore are not familiar with the bullshit that is App Store policy. And many of their customers are based in the west, where their stance on privacy at least _seems_ substantially better than their big tech alternatives. For those based in China, coddling with an authoritarian government is just business as usual.

The most important factor to most people, myself included for the most part, is that they make devices people enjoy using.

thinkingemote• 5 years ago

Brand and personal investment of time and money in that brand means people will defend their investment.

It's why you can detect so much anger and pain in anti apple threads, because people's personalities are wrapped up with the brand.

A consumer doesn't just get one apple device, or just use one apple app, they buy the watch, phone, desktop, laptop, subscriptions, walled garden store, etc, and it works. It's a family which is hard to leave because you like it there.

spideymans2• 5 years ago

I really can’t criticize Apple for making an ecosystem (walled garden) of devices and services that people genuinely enjoy being in. I just lament that there really is no other comparable parallel ecosystem to compete with them, particularly from open source vendors.

tuyiown• 5 years ago

I don't understand why you focus on apple. The problem is accros the entire mobile space, the frightening thing is not the power of apple, it's the fact that _alternatives are not much better_

matheusmoreira• 5 years ago

Yeah, it's extremely frustrating. It's like everyone's efforts to preserve our freedoms and control don't matter. All progress is undone because Apple's offerings are just that much more comfortable. It's a constant uphill battle against billion dollar companies who are always light years ahead of us in terms of software and strategy.

It sucks.

amelius• 5 years ago

It's a constant uphill battle against billion dollar companies who are always light years ahead of us in terms of software and strategy.

Yes, and these companies will use open solutions whenever it suits them. Some of these companies were even initially built on open solutions.

It's an asymmetric battle.

avree• 5 years ago

I have never needed to repair an Apple device, because they work well for the duration of their lifetime in my experience. When I have occasionally needed repairs, Apple does a fine job of servicing my product for a reasonable price. I can install every piece of software that I want on my Mac, and every business/startup I've worked at has used Macs as the default hardware so I'm not so sure about your "they prevent you from running your business unfettered" claim either.

tl;dr - the stuff you're worried about is probably moot to the average consumer, which is why Apple continues to make sales.

ClumsyPilot• 5 years ago

"tl;dr - the stuff you're worried about is probably moot to the average consumer, which is why Apple continues to make sales."

That's a very poor argument, it is easy to sell something toxic to the average consumer.

This applies to all areas where product is complex, banks can literally ruin their life with one financial product.

Known loansharks and drug dealers never have shortage of customers, they neber seem to learn.

ChrisMarshallNY5• 5 years ago

Ever seen folks decked out in Harley-Davidson, NASCAR, or MOPAR gear?

Never underestimate the power of good branding.

I’m not an Apple fanboi, but I don’t regret choosing it as my main development platform.

dev_tty01• 5 years ago

First, I don't think your comment is relevant to this discussion, but I guess that has never stopped anyone on HN. People complain about Apple maps, and the article is about how much work Apple is doing to improve their maps.

As to many of your other points, they are just wrong. I do repair my own devices, I do install my own software and I do run my business unfettered. I can't speak for others, but your assertion is not consistent with my own experience.

Which files do they "spy" on? They do offer on-device services like automatic photo tagging, rule based email filtering, etc. I can use those or not. I can grep and search my files, so I guess Apple (the OS) is "looking" at my files. Is that different than any OS? Basically any OS vendor has access to your files. You either trust it or you don't. Apple's business model is not built on selling my data to advertisers so I choose to trust them. You are welcome to make another choice.

As far as coddling to authoritarian governments, yes they follow the laws of the countries they operate in. So do any other companies that operate in those countries. That stinks, but that is the reality. Companies can either abandon markets or follow local laws. Which of these is the long term good? Lots of valid arguments both ways, but there can be no argument on one point. Operating in country X requires following the laws of country X.

Look, they are no saints, I get that. But they build great devices that do everything I want them to do. Of course there are people that have bad experiences, but overall Apple's customer satisfaction numbers are extremely high and people keep buying their devices. That's not an opinion.

To your central point, yes, as Apple offers more services that I find useful they do accrue more power. Which large companies that offer useful services do not accrue associated power? I choose to align with the company whose business model is not built upon selling me and my data to third parties. Eyes wide open. There are other good choices and I am happy for other people to make different choices. I don't feel pain for them.

kemayo• 5 years ago

continues to accrue substantial and dangerous power.
They coddle and report to authoritarian governments.

There's an interesting tension here. One strand of complaint is "Apple is too powerful", and the other is "Apple isn't ignoring laws".

If you're worried about the accrual of power to megacorporations, maybe you'd not like for them to be picking and choosing what laws they'll obey based on their own whims?

dchest4• 5 years ago

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world it cannot even get the shape of land and country borders right. Here's an example on the border of Montenegro and Albania: https://imgur.com/a/B3aVJYH

littlestymaar6• 5 years ago

Google Maps is better[1] but none of them come even remotely close of Open Street Maps[2]

[1] https://www.google.com/maps/@41.858832,19.3550722,13.71z

[2] https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/728419973#map=13/41.8835/...

avereveard2• 5 years ago

Bah, these map both cannot escape being politicised. One shows Monte Bianco summit in France, the other at the border.

eliaspro• 5 years ago

Geofabrik provides MapCompare for this...

The differences between OSM and the rest are staggering!

https://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/#14/41.8650/19.3868&num=4&mt0=...

dchest4• 5 years ago

OpenStreetMap is indeed awesome in this area. I wonder why Apple can't just import their fresh data for a few years already.

GeekyBear3• 5 years ago

it cannot even get the shape of land and country borders right

Neither can Google.

From Pakistan, Kashmir appears disputed while from India, it appears as a part of India, the Post report said, adding that "Google Maps changes disputed borders based on what country you search from".

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/google-maps-redraws-d...

webmobdev4• 5 years ago

It's because the laws of many countries dictate that any map available to their citizens cannot deviate from the official map that highlights the boundaries with other foreign countries. Google Maps (as well as any other private or public company) can be banned if it doesn't comply.

dchest4• 5 years ago

As far as I know, there are no border disputes related to the area I posted about.

mtmail2• 5 years ago

You can report data issues at https://github.com/osmlab/appledata/issues/149 (Montenegro) https://github.com/osmlab/appledata/issues/148 (Albania)

dchest4• 5 years ago

Is this for Apple's data collaboration with OpenStreetMaps? I don't get it — both countries seem have very good coverage in OSM, but not in Apple Maps.

asymmetric• 5 years ago

From 2020.

littlestymaar6• 5 years ago

I still don't understand why Apple map is so bad compared to OpenStreetMap given that they contribute a lot to it (they are even the biggest company contributor to OSM). There must be a reason, legal or something, but why don't they just use OSM as a default for places they didn't map by themselves?

[1] https://www.gislounge.com/openstreetmap-one-of-the-worlds-la...

webmobdev4• 5 years ago

I think it might be because Apple will have to give visible attribution to OpenStreetMaps, which may attract users towards it to the detriment of Apple maps.

littlestymaar6• 5 years ago

But why do they contribute then?!

mikestew• 5 years ago

When I go to choose which map type I'd like in Apple Maps, right there at the bottom, just below TomTom's logo:

"© OpenStreetMap and other data providers"

avianlyric2• 5 years ago

I suspect they want to review and check every inch of OSM in an area before they import it.

Just incase someone has hidden something extremely offensive within the dataset, and deliberately mutilated the maps to create funny images etc

Google had a few very public cases of people using their open contribution process to embed images of Android, penises and hate symbols into their maps. All this created a huge about of negative PR, and eventually resulted in the contributions system being shutdown.

littlestymaar6• 5 years ago

Maybe that's the reason. It sounds a bit extreme but given the control culture of the company that would make sense.

All this created a huge about of negative PR

Probably not that huge though, given I've never heard of it before :).

mtmail2• 5 years ago

I suspect they want to review and check every inch of OSM in an area before they import it.

Facebook does the same with OpenStreetMap data. With a combination of automated tools and team of manual reviewers they were months behind with updates to allow error detection.

"Some of these contributions may have intentional and unintentional edits that are incompatible with our use cases. Our mapping teams work to scrub these contributions for consistency and quality. In the course of this work, we also build additional tools and technologies on top of OSM to increase mapping speed, and more importantly, drive a higher level of detail, quality and accuracy on the map." https://daylightmap.org/

cjensen• 5 years ago

Neither Apple nor Google check to ensure that roads actually exist. Both have imported USGS maps that include non-public roads which are gated shut to the public.

Example: 37.475,-121.753

Both Google Maps and Apple Maps will cheerfully give you directions to this location which is less than 15 miles from their respective headquarters. You can't get there.

GeekyBear3• 5 years ago

Apple is still in the process of creating and rolling out their own map data.

In areas where they haven't converted to their own data, they still rely on map data from others, like TomTom and OSM.

mulmen2• 5 years ago

I’m on the big island of Hawaii and Apple Maps is basically useless. I can’t find my hostel by name. I also can’t find it by address. It’s just very bad.

BitwiseFool• 5 years ago

Do you think street names and place names being in Hawaiian might have anything to do with this?

mulmen2• 5 years ago

I think it has more to do with a lack of competence on the part of the maps team. Place names are just strings.

barkerja• 5 years ago

This is actually somewhat surprising given that Hawaii was one of the first states to get surveyed directly by Apple. Is it a recent address? And have you tried reporting it? My personal experience is Apple is pretty responsive to (all) Maps reports.

ChrisMarshallNY5• 5 years ago

I’m using Apple Maps for the app that I’m developing now.

The alternative would not have been Google Maps. It would have been MapBox.

Google Maps will give app developers like me severe sticker shock. I watched a friend of mine get it in the shorts (forcing him to switch to MapBox). After watching that, I decided that I will never depend on Google services as a linchpin technology. In fact, it simply hardened my resolve to avoid third-party dependence, wherever possible.

When I started the project I’m working on now, Apple Maps had already grown to cover all of the US, albeit not as well as Google Maps. I’ve been seeing Apple Maps cars driving around here, for at least a couple of years.

I’m pretty confident that relying on Apple Maps was not a mistake.

MrBuddyCasino4• 5 years ago

Did you consider here.com, and if not, why?

ChrisMarshallNY5• 5 years ago

Yeah, but I have seen MapBox in action in a number of apps, and have yet to see one native app, delivered with here.com. As it is, I even decided against using MapBox.

I'd need to see it in use a bit more, before relying on it for my users. Most of what I do is free, or low-cost work, aimed at folks in need. In some cases, lives depend on my work, and there's little money or glory.

That Google "squeal piggy!" thing I witnessed was quite sobering.

People seem to be quite sanguine about putting all their eggs into one basket. I guess that's kind of necessary, these days, but we need to be careful about choosing baskets.

I'm kind of a crusty, scarred ol' bastard. Takes more than a pretty Web site to get me on board, and I don't bring buckets of money with me, so I'm just not that attractive.

magicalist2• 5 years ago

I’m using Apple Maps for the app that I’m developing now. The alternative would not have been Google Maps. It would have been MapBox.

It's easy to make a theoretical stance like this, but Apple Maps and Google Maps are free in an iOS app, but MapBox is not. If you were forced to switch off Apple Maps for some reason, it seems likely the free option would win out.

it simply hardened my resolve to avoid third-party dependence, wherever possible

all of these libraries are third-party dependencies...

Google Maps will give app developers like me severe sticker shock

If we're talking just about the javascript API, in my experience if you're using more than just a very local map, people always have very wishful thinking about MapBox pricing and it usually ends up almost the same as Google Maps pricing. This isn't an accident, they need to be a better priced alternative but they also need to pay the bills. The pull to switch at that point would be if you need better address lookup or something.

If you are doing a very local map (like the equivalent of a few tiles for your average user), you're often better off just rolling your own tile server. People are often surprised how easy it is.

ChrisMarshallNY5• 5 years ago

Apple Maps and Google Maps are free in an iOS app

Google API is not free. It would be at least a 4-digit cost per month. I think that my friend was hit with a $1,500/mo nut. Google changed terms (back when they started demanding that all users of the API give credit card numbers). His app is fairly popular, and he'd need to pay them for the SDK.

all of these libraries are third-party dependencies...

I've been relying on Apple's toolkits since 1986. They've pulled a couple of stunts (OpenDoc, anyone?), but they have been a reliable partner, for the most part.

If we're talking just about the javascript API

I don't do JS. I do native Swift. It would require embedding their API. My friend did that, and it was far more cost-effective. Lot less than Google (he sells his app for $0.99, and it's not popular enough to do much more than pay for itself). MapBox is quite nice. His app is native ObjC. He's had it out for quite a while. He originally started with Google's API, as that was the only one that offered the particular services he needed.

Most of the stuff I write is free, open-source. I could probably get Google to let us use it for free (we're a 501(c)(3)), but I've already seen them turn the screws once, and I'm in no mind to set myself up for something like them deciding that we could give them a tithe.

Also, I have had some ... issues ... with third-party libraries. I'm quite particular about the Quality of my work, and I find that not too many others share my passion.

Doctor_Fegg2• 5 years ago

As ever, worth noting that self-hosting maps can be a very viable option.

You can generate OSM-derived vector tiles for the whole world for €15, using tilemaker running on Scaleway bare metal. It'd cost more like ~€100 to run it on AWS but still very doable.

That gives you a big sqlite database file (.mbtiles) to host wherever you want. Use Maplibre, the open-source fork of Mapbox GL, in your app or site.

rcarmo• 5 years ago

This needs a (2020) in the title.

GeekyBear3• 5 years ago

Since this 2020 post, Apple's home grown map data has extended to all of the US and it's territories, Canada, Ireland, The U.K., Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

I believe Australia is the next addition.

https://www.justinobeirne.com/new-apple-maps-expansion-12

You can access the Apple Maps web interface through DuckDuckGo.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Rome+Italy&ia=web&iaxm=maps

MrBuddyCasino4• 5 years ago

I discovered that Google Maps is consuming a huge amount of data, several GB during my last vacation, nearly depleting my contingent. How does Apple Maps compare?

lnanek22• 5 years ago

Google Maps does have an offline download option it offers occasionally if you know how to trigger it. Have never seen Apple Maps offer that.

MrBuddyCasino4• 5 years ago

It was an island and I downloaded it completely as offline map, didn't help at all. Or do you mean something else?

alberth• 5 years ago

Google = data company

Apple = design company, who's getting better at being a data company

As an aside, I really love reading these yearly posts from Justin. I always drop what I'm doing when I see one of these posts from him.

lnanek22• 5 years ago

Even if Apple Maps doesn't have as much data as Google, the experience is so much better. Makes a lot of sense that Google is copying it as per the article.

Whenever I use Google Maps, it constantly harasses me about how there's a slowdown ahead, puts a little tray across the bottom of the screen hiding the information I care about, with no way to get rid of it except tapping and other nonsense. I searched throughout the settings and can't find anyway to turn off all these annoying pop ups it has. Someone needs to write an ad blocker for it.

Apple Maps not only doesn't constantly harass me with meaningless notifications I can't dismiss without taking my hands off the wheel, it also shows traffic lights, and the voice over instructions include them as well. With Google I often turn too early or too late because it isn't very clear exactly when to turn. With Apple Maps that happens a lot less because Siri will flat out tell you, turn at this light, turn at the next light, etc..

mthoms• 5 years ago

I've identified so many traffic lights for Google (via reCaptcha). Probably hundreds. I'm surprised they haven't integrated that info into maps yet.

The free labor I've provided them is probably enough to cover an entire neighbourhood already :)

Rebelgecko2• 5 years ago

Those popups autodismiss after something like 5-10 seconds

websap4• 5 years ago

I've been recently trying out the new Apple maps' turn by turn navigation. Some of the directions are almost human like - "Take a left at next traffic light" Must say makes driving directions easier to follow compared to take a left on X street, when I can't even see what X street is at night.

LindyTalker• 5 years ago

I have noticed this as well. Much easier too when it's saying which lane to be in when you're exiting a highway

jiveturkey• 5 years ago

The lane by lane is more harm than help IMHO.

You often get an instruction like "use the left 2 lanes". But where you are when the instruction is given, the leftmost lane might be a forced early left turn. If you're unfamiliar with the location, this requires a lot of extra cognitive load, vs simply not giving that specificity at all.

As well, traffic conditions change rapidly and the lane by lane doesn't account for that.

In some easier situations, it's great, but it's a negative in more complex situations.

larrik• 5 years ago

It seems great, and then on a rainy night while I'm running late it brought me to the wrong place...

It was only about 200 yards up the road, but it brought me to someone's house, and had me turn in the wrong direction.

So, I was even later...

websap4• 5 years ago

200 yards = 182 meters. This definitely seems like an issue, hope you had the chance to report it. My expectation from maps is generally a resolution of about 10m.

mshockwave• 5 years ago

finally, I'm not the only one feeling some of the street signs are barely visible at night.

kstrauser• 5 years ago

That, and "go through this traffic light and turn left at the next one" is brilliant.

mattlondon3• 5 years ago

Doesn't Google maps do this too?

At least in the UK I can hear "at the roundabout, take the Xth exit" echoing in my head right now. Can't remember about traffic lights.

It does mention road names though which is kinda silly... If I knew the roads well enough to know what they are called I'd not need directions!

websap4• 5 years ago

Definitely doesn't do it for traffic lights in the US.

Rebelgecko2• 5 years ago

Google Maps also uses landmarks, eg "turn right after the GameStop". AFAIK those aren't sponsored

gordon_freeman• 5 years ago

I recently started using Apple Maps in my car using CarPlay and just pleasantly surprised with some nice features as showing STOP and SIGNAL signs on the map so I know when to stop way beforehand in my mind rather than straining my eyes to look for those signs when I get closer to them. Makes a huge difference when you are tired and can not focus 100% when driving.

TedShiller2• 5 years ago

To compete, Apple Maps will also need to have a fully accessible web version

sixstringtheory2• 5 years ago

Why is that? As far as I can imagine, people using Apple maps, especially those requiring accessibility features, will be using the app on their phone.

mattlondon3• 5 years ago

It is embedded in various places on the web - e.g. duckduckgo uses it. You don't get a choice if the website owner forces it on you

McElodeon• 5 years ago

DuckDuckGo's maps are powered by Apple Maps, so technically they do.

TedShiller2• 5 years ago

that's cool, i had no idea

tylerrobinson2• 5 years ago

Every time I've tried Apple Maps, I run into the same problem--it doesn't seem to predict your realtime location ahead by X feet to account for your speed and delay in GPS signal. Google Maps does this. The result is that on Apple Maps, your position is "behind" where you really are at the moment, and it's harder to make the turn. Google's tradeoff is that if you miss a turn, it will momentarily show your position as if you'd made the turn correctly. Perhaps this is a matter of preference, but I am much more successful at navigating while driving using Google Maps than with Apple Maps.

uptown• 5 years ago

I've noticed the same thing. I do use Apple Maps in Carplay, but have learned to anticipate what's shown on-screen in-relation to where I'm actually located. Seems like it's certainly fixable, but I'm surprised it hasn't been addressed already given that two random strangers on the internet highlight that as one of the service's primary weaknesses.

bezossucks• 5 years ago

Has Apple ever factored user feedback into its designs? They seem pretty dictatorial in how they approach UX.. "Apple knows best, user will adjust."

<-- typing this from a Mac, while learning how to use iPad's opaque gestures...

fomine3• 5 years ago

Possibly only Android Auto receives vehicle speed signal from a car? https://developer.android.com/reference/android/car/VehicleP...

tylerrobinson2• 5 years ago

I have never used Android or iOS car integrations. I am speaking from using GPS while driving, so I meant the app’s ability to calculate your speed based on GPS.

Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

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