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Apple is Rebuilding Maps From the Ground Up (techcrunch.com)
Apple hasn't given up on Maps. After a rough first impression, an apology from the CEO, several years of patching holes with data partnerships and some glimmers of light with long-awaited transit directions and improvements in business, parking and place data, Apple Maps is still not where it needs to be to be considered a world class service. Apple is aware of this, apparently, it told TechCrunch. From a report: Apple, it turns out, is aware of this, so It's re-building the maps part of Maps. It's doing this by using first-party data gathered by iPhones with a privacy-first methodology and its own fleet of cars packed with sensors and cameras. The new product will launch in San Francisco and the Bay Area with the next iOS 12 Beta and will cover Northern California by fall.
Every version of iOS will get the updated maps eventually and they will be more responsive to changes in roadways and construction, more visually rich depending on the specific context they're viewed in and feature more detailed ground cover, foliage, pools, pedestrian pathways and more. This is nothing less than a full re-set of Maps and it's been 4 years in the making, which is when Apple began to develop its new data gathering systems. Eventually, Apple will no longer rely on third-party data to provide the basis for its maps, which has been one of its major pitfalls from the beginning.
Every version of iOS will get the updated maps eventually and they will be more responsive to changes in roadways and construction, more visually rich depending on the specific context they're viewed in and feature more detailed ground cover, foliage, pools, pedestrian pathways and more. This is nothing less than a full re-set of Maps and it's been 4 years in the making, which is when Apple began to develop its new data gathering systems. Eventually, Apple will no longer rely on third-party data to provide the basis for its maps, which has been one of its major pitfalls from the beginning.
It's cute how apple keeps trying with maps.
google has like 8,000 employees dedicated to maps
apple has like 8
also "privacy-first methodology" isn't nearly specific enough
Why bother trying to maintain their failed maps system when there are several others they could partner with?
Though I suppose I wouldn't want them to get too involved with something like Mapbox. Apple would fuck that up too.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
"Every version of iOS will get the updated maps eventually and they will be more responsive to changes in roadways and construction, more visually rich depending on the specific context they're viewed in and feature more detailed ground cover, foliage, pools, pedestrian pathways and more"
That's great and all, but the real problem with Maps is its endemic PoI database. It knows half the Tim Horton's and Canadian Tire's in the area. If you're Canadian, you'll understand what that means.
We know the plan, but what's the real benefit?
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
That's good to hear. Maybe the new maps will have all of I-140 around Wilmington, NC. It opened last year before Thanksgiving and still isn't showing up on the map. You can see the damn road in the satellite view. I even sent them an email asking them to add it about 2 months ago.
As an aside, I've noticed that few kids these days, with their iPhones and maps (probably from Google), know where they are. But they all know where they're going.
Unless thay think that San Francisco is the world
Someone cannot do basic math: square Km to cover / number of people doing it.
On a side note: basic GIS is something that should be demanded to the government (thae use it anyway) and should be free to use for anybody.
Maybe Apple should join with Open Street Map instead, that would be a "think different"
... a piece of cake for Apple to pull off. After all, they've got obscene amounts of money on the bank.
I wish they'd give back some of their data to the OSM project that saved their ass a few years back when they ditched Google maps, but that's probably to much to ask for.
Anyhow, competition in the maps space can't hurt. It's Google, then a massive gap and then some nifty OSM stuff. If Apple can throw a third maps thing into this, it's all for the better IMHO. Google can use some top-tier competitor pissing in their territory.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
This seems a bit wasteful for society. We are now mapping things twice. I guess some remapping is needed to pickup changes to roads. But in our current system those fixes are only reflected in that companies maps.
someone will be able to fact check this:
Back in the late 80's early 90' there was an amazing word processor called Wordstar. They choose to do a re-write of the code from top to bottom. At the same time Microsoft just came out with version 2 or 3 there's word processor. It was a race, and Microsoft choose to do a side by side development, where old code was upgraded with anything new they came up with, and the new ground-up version was being done with features from the old copied and tested and new stuff.
Microsoft won because they rolled out the upgrades ( we did not ( as i recall ) have on-line MS upgrades, but disk mailed upgrades, and pirate-BBS type shareware upgrades ) , people had the latest features without much issue and no real learning curve, and they walked everyone into the new word processor.
Wordstar flopped on the code re-write with too many bugs and people became dis-satisfied.
I hope Apple and other reading this take this lesson and apply it
if you see me, smile and say hello.
If I cannot report on and be warned of speed traps it's useless to me and won't be touched. Waze does this and more and already works, it's now going to be accepted in CarPlay too so....
They plan to have Northern CA by fall of this year?! Hopefully the rest of the map won't go black (or white).
I think it's very important for Apple to start (re)investing in their software. As a person who was around the last time Apple stumbled - it was mostly due to poor software. Everyone else could do it - except Apple. The whole iOS ecosystem has very strong apps by other vendors....but iOS doesn't allow for integration. Windows-10 allows me to set the default browser (although I can't replace Cortana). My issue here is that Google Maps and (voice) Search is way way (way) better than anything that Apple has. Yet it is difficult to use because I need to Launch the App !!! It's why I won't buy an Apple smart speaker - what can I really do with it?! Pay more for audio !!
I often wonder if I should switch to Android. Then I ponder it and think -I like the security so let's try using the native iOS apps again only to realize .. WTF.. back to Google apps.
Line this up with perceived "the most expensive phones" on the market, poor software, and one has to wonder how long before Apple will again find themselves at the bottom?!
All our effort ought to go towards OpenStreetMap. It's time to end proprietary map data and the anti-data commercial mapping businesses create to circumvent copyright law.
In the case of Maps you are not really talking about a re-write of software so much as a larger and more accurate set of data being gathered.
Everyone knows the big software re-writes are problematic but this is not that. It's more of a gradual improvement over what is there, walking users into new maps features as it were... there will be no learning curve here either, just improved maps over time with more features.
You also left out a huge part of your story, which is the bundling that Microsoft did with Word making Word the default choice for Windows and leading Wordstar to starve. What about WordPerfect? It was excellent word processing software (better than Word), did not have the same re-write issue, yet it died as well. Can you honestly say there is ANYTHING Wordstar could have done to overcome the advantages Word had?
Every iOS device (and Mac) ships with Apple Maps, that is also its own huge advantage... as is Apples very large pile of cash to be able to afford quality efforts of upgrade, Wordstar did not have a massive cash slush fund it could afford to keep improving forever.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
One of the Apple cars doing the mapping was seen north of Houghton in the U.P. of Michigan yesterday.
Passionately Indifferent
Why bother trying to maintain their failed maps system when there are several others they could partner with?
Because you don't want to depend on third party vendors for something like that if you don't have to. Not at Apple's scale anyway. For mobile devices these days it qualifies as critical functionality. The importance of it almost cannot be overstated. So yeah it makes sense for Apple to be rolling their own so to speak.
And frankly their maps system hasn't failed. Far from it. It's got flaws of course but it's been getting the job done just fine for lots of people. The problem isn't that it is terrible but rather that it lags the competition to some degree. It would be bad for Apple if it started lagging too far behind. For some people it already does.
Google is a a software company that makes some hardware.
Google is an advertising company but if you call them a software company it's not far from the mark.
Apple is a hardware company that makes some software.
No they are not. They are a software company that only sells (most of) their software with a piece of hardware. But the hardware is just the packaging - not the secret sauce. Apple doesn't make hardware - they outsource that. There really isn't much difference between Apple's hardware and the competition. They DO make software - it's the core of what they do. You can tell what a company's core business is by what they do themselves versus what they buy from others. Apple's software is what people pay for. Few would buy an Apple computer without OS X and few would buy an iPhone if it ran Android. Hardware is critical to Apple's business model but calling Apple a hardware company is to misunderstand the company at a fundamental level.
I doubt Apple will ever get Maps to the quality as Google Maps is. It isn't money or resources, but how the company culture approaches the problem.
I agree with this to an extent. Apple isn't really culturally oriented towards organizing information like Google is. Apple is good at interfaces and design and user experience. Arguable among if not the best. But they never have been the best at applications and big data. Not to say they are incompetent but others do it better. Apple is exceptional at some things but they tend to pigeonhole themselves with design dogma and are more focused on building integrated devices than worrying about the information that goes on them.
I hate that iOS won't allow me to switch my default map software. Click on an address... it opens Apple Maps. *Vomit*
I discovered a year or so back, using the iOS Google Maps for driving info, that they aren't actual maps - like you find on paper traffic maps - but very map-looking schematics that omit things they think you don't need to know about.
Like highway on-off ramps.
When you use the app for directions, where it knows your destination, yes, it shows you where to get off (if you follow its directions), but otherwise these traffic connections are not shown. I found this out since I wanted to see what the next off-ramp was, not having a specific destination programmed in. And I found none.
The Apple Maps app however did show every on-off ramp, like a real traffic map.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
I say this as an ardent Apple product user and shareholder:
Apple, just stop with the maps. We have Google Maps. Thatâ(TM)s enough. You finally let us use it with CarPlay, for which we are very grateful. That is all you needed to do. Spend your Maps resources on something else. Thank you.
Every time I read a tech company claiming they are "rebuilding it from the ground up" it tells me one thing:
they didn't get their foundation right
else why would they be starting over throwing away man-years spent tracking down bugs?
"Google is a a software company that makes some hardware. Apple is a hardware company that makes some software."
Google is an advertising company which branched into software, services and hardware. It's still about "free services", paid for with your eyeballs and privacy.
Apple is a hardware company which branched into a services company. They make software, but it's mostly linked to their hardware and given away for free.
...is the Bing of the mapping world. The Zune of the mapping world. The Scott Evil of the mapping world.
Agreed. It's only a matter of time before they start rebuilding from ground up that piece of shit that is ios.
It's this type of thing that makes me think Apple has lost sight of what they offer as a business.
When I use Google Maps, it is very jerky/stuttery while I'm following its directions. Checked the support forums and many people have this issue, and there's no solution.
Google has the best maps, bar none. They are actively updated such that you will see exactly where the traffic bottlenecks are (those portions of the road are red) and how much time it will add to your transit.
Apple is simply overpriced hardware, that's it.
... a piece of cake for Apple to pull off. After all, they've got obscene amounts of money on the bank.
But Apple lacks the experience and the talent.
I guess you're a PM who thinks 9 women can make a baby in 1 month. Building something takes more than money.
It took ages for Google to catch up to ESRI and that was only implementing the features they wanted, ArcGIS still does far more than Google Maps but Google Maps does 90% of what people use it for (and about 60% of what people use ArcGIS for). In the mean time, ESRI was being complacent.
So how long will it take Apple to get to where Google currently is? And do you think Google will be sitting idly by while this happens?
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.