Apple Maps’ offering might surprise people who remember its disastrous launch in 2012, which the Guardian described as the company’s “first significant failure in years”. Users were more than furious – they were lost, sometimes dangerously so. In Australia, police had to rescue tourists from the huge Murray-Sunset national park, after Maps placed the city of Mildura in the wrong place by more than 40 miles. Some of the motorists located by police had been stranded for 24 hours without food or water. In Ireland, ministers had to complain directly to Apple after a cafe and gardens called “Airfield” was designated by the service as an actual airport.
But mostly the map was just glitchy and unhelpful, its directions always a little off kilter. Users revolted and Apple made a rare retreat, allowing Google Maps to be used as the default on many iPhone apps and apologizing for the product.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
But with one earbud in and Siri activated, you can have a friendly voice guide you through a foreign city, drifting you towards cycle lanes and safer routes and navigating often complex one-way systems.
In my hometown of London, where a lot of cycling routes are pathways in woods or through reservoirs, it has a habit of sending you down these dark and sometimes dangerous paths at night when the streets are much quicker and mostly empty.
In the post-apocalyptic, post-internet world in HBO’s The Last Of Us, there’s a scene in which the main character Joel, having spent weeks traversing an icy wasteland, happens upon a small cottage inhabited by an old couple.
As Cue himself recognises, “there are really only two mapmakers left in the world, in ourselves and Google” – and that monopoly of information, says Clancy Wilmott, a professor specialising in digital cartographies at Berkley, has consequences.
For their part, the Apple Maps engineers I spoke with acknowledged that they were more reliant on AI, aerial photography and existing data in rural settings and were focusing on expanding to more cities.
I’d say: ‘Once you’re on Ascension and you see the brick column, that driveway right after is mine.’ We’ve been working hard on that as well,” Cue says, adding that the future might be Siri telling you to “make a left at the yellow house”.
Counter-point. I have used Maps over the past 8-ish years exclusively on three thousands-of-miles cross-country (US) excursions on my motorcycle, I use it to locate unpaved/off-beaten path roads to take, and I use it regularly as my local way finder and when I am in unfamiliar cities. Not once has it lead me astray…
I find it works great for navigation and the map quality is so much better than Google Maps. My only complaints are that it lacks extra features such as business information, reviews, etc. It’s better than it used to be but they still use things like Yelp (ugh) at least in my area.
I use Apple maps almost exclusively because it’s easier with my car. Works great. The only thing I’ve noticed is when someone warns me there’s a crash on my route, Google generally is already routing me around it while apple is sending me through it.
I switched over to Apple Maps from Google Maps around 5 years ago. Still go back for certain kinds of details, but in general Apple’s offering works better for navigation for me.
Same here. I find myself going to Google Maps if I want to search for something and Apple Maps to navigate to whatever because actually searching for destinations in Apple Maps is usually buggered.
Same. AM has been terrific for a long time now. And I’d say for directions and mapping, AM is essentially the same as GM. Where AM really shines is the quality, speed and responsiveness, especially when it comes to features like street view. The quality is insane compared to GM.
I ended up using Apple maps when I was in Japan and it worked great, drove all over the place and it got me where I needed to go. I tried Google maps but it kept reading the kanji street names as if they were chinese and it was really confusing.
I haven’t used Apple maps because I have an android phone. But I can tell you that Google maps is steaming hot garbage now. The UI is so bloated and unintuitive.
I’ve been using it in lieu of google maps for quite some time now and it seems to work fine. It no longer assumes I’m The Blues Brothers and direct me to drive straight through shopping malls.
It’s pretty impressive in my use across the US. Listings are not as good as Google Maps, but the directions are as good yet it looks much nicer.
However I spent a lot of time in West/South Asia. It’s functional here, but Google Maps takes a big leap here since user suggestions and corrections are implemented much quicker.
The Apple Maps team is very slow to react, which is unfortunate as many roads are places are way off.
I was on vacation recently and Apple Maps gave a weirdly circuitous route from our hotel to a restaurant. I checked Google Maps and it showed the direct route I expected, so I went with that.
Google Maps routed me on to a street that was closed due to construction, Apple Maps was smart enough to route around the construction.
I expect general parity between Apple and Google
Maps, I had not expected Apple to have better data.
Totally anecdotal, but I’ve reported a couple of non-existant roads to Google. I occasionally check because I’m curious if they ever updated them, but Google still tells me to drive through a walking path and walk through a fenced off private property. It’s been years at this point. I don’t have an iPhone so I don’t have any experience with Apple maps, but maybe they’re better at taking user reports into account?
I recently purchased a car with CarPlay and use Apple Maps daily. I feel like I’m the only one that finds Apple Maps ok in my city and don’t have issues. I do keep Waze on the phone as a backup though because I’m sure one day I will experience what everyone talks about. :D
My SO just upgraded to an iPhone and she keeps talking about how much better the voice directions from CarPlay with Maps are. Sitting outside a fitting room right now, she said “Now these are my kind of directions” on the way here.
Personally I’m a huge fan of TomTom Go. It’s free to try out, but costs money if you want to use it for anything but a negligible amount.
TomTom has really dialed in the turn by turn directions over the years, and of all the navigation software I’ve tried over the years they still reign on top.
And in a country littered with speed cameras I’m more than happy to cough up $20 a year for a family subscription.
Not where I live. Instead of new stuff we got regressions (see my other comment).
Do you also get audible alerts when approaching a speed camera? TomTom also has a feature for average speed measurements where it calculates your average speed between the two cameras. Great feature if you are unsure of where you are instead of dropping your speed to be “safe” (and annoy everyone behind you).
I haven’t tried their app, but my car, unfortunately, has TT built in. Still looks and works as bad as it did 15 years ago on my Windows phone. I accidentally started it once when I didn’t notice that my phone didn’t connect via Android Auto. I’d rather Mitsubishi just included nothing when negotiations with Google failed.
I’ve used TomTom on iPhone since 2010. Improvement is huge.
I do suspect your complaint is more likely to be directed towards the hardware and touch interface of your infotainment than the software, but a satnav with outdated maps is not worth much IMO.
If you’re looking for something for free I can also recommend Here. Also great for when you are traveling where roaming is expensive as it allows offline search and routing.
I’ve been spoiled by free roaming with T-mobile so I just use Google maps everywhere. It also let’s you download areas where you expect to travel in case there’s no reception.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@beehaw.org
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
My work phone is an iPhone and Apple maps has, more than once, put me.on the opposite side of the city from where I’m supposed to be.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
But with one earbud in and Siri activated, you can have a friendly voice guide you through a foreign city, drifting you towards cycle lanes and safer routes and navigating often complex one-way systems.
In my hometown of London, where a lot of cycling routes are pathways in woods or through reservoirs, it has a habit of sending you down these dark and sometimes dangerous paths at night when the streets are much quicker and mostly empty.
In the post-apocalyptic, post-internet world in HBO’s The Last Of Us, there’s a scene in which the main character Joel, having spent weeks traversing an icy wasteland, happens upon a small cottage inhabited by an old couple.
As Cue himself recognises, “there are really only two mapmakers left in the world, in ourselves and Google” – and that monopoly of information, says Clancy Wilmott, a professor specialising in digital cartographies at Berkley, has consequences.
For their part, the Apple Maps engineers I spoke with acknowledged that they were more reliant on AI, aerial photography and existing data in rural settings and were focusing on expanding to more cities.
I’d say: ‘Once you’re on Ascension and you see the brick column, that driveway right after is mine.’ We’ve been working hard on that as well,” Cue says, adding that the future might be Siri telling you to “make a left at the yellow house”.
not good, sometimes still trying to use it and get lost from time to time
Counter-point. I have used Maps over the past 8-ish years exclusively on three thousands-of-miles cross-country (US) excursions on my motorcycle, I use it to locate unpaved/off-beaten path roads to take, and I use it regularly as my local way finder and when I am in unfamiliar cities. Not once has it lead me astray…
I use it constantly in city and rural areas and find it works pretty well for me.
Yeah, I’ve been using it for years and it’s been perfectly fine
I find it works great for navigation and the map quality is so much better than Google Maps. My only complaints are that it lacks extra features such as business information, reviews, etc. It’s better than it used to be but they still use things like Yelp (ugh) at least in my area.
I use Apple maps almost exclusively because it’s easier with my car. Works great. The only thing I’ve noticed is when someone warns me there’s a crash on my route, Google generally is already routing me around it while apple is sending me through it.
I switched over to Apple Maps from Google Maps around 5 years ago. Still go back for certain kinds of details, but in general Apple’s offering works better for navigation for me.
Same here. I find myself going to Google Maps if I want to search for something and Apple Maps to navigate to whatever because actually searching for destinations in Apple Maps is usually buggered.
Same. AM has been terrific for a long time now. And I’d say for directions and mapping, AM is essentially the same as GM. Where AM really shines is the quality, speed and responsiveness, especially when it comes to features like street view. The quality is insane compared to GM.
It’s better than it used to be, but still sometimes takes me on ridiculously circuitous routes.
I ended up using Apple maps when I was in Japan and it worked great, drove all over the place and it got me where I needed to go. I tried Google maps but it kept reading the kanji street names as if they were chinese and it was really confusing.
I haven’t used Apple maps because I have an android phone. But I can tell you that Google maps is steaming hot garbage now. The UI is so bloated and unintuitive.
For me personally, gmaps hast best ui and features from allandroid navigation apps I tried.
I’ve been using it in lieu of google maps for quite some time now and it seems to work fine. It no longer assumes I’m The Blues Brothers and direct me to drive straight through shopping malls.
It’s pretty impressive in my use across the US. Listings are not as good as Google Maps, but the directions are as good yet it looks much nicer.
However I spent a lot of time in West/South Asia. It’s functional here, but Google Maps takes a big leap here since user suggestions and corrections are implemented much quicker.
The Apple Maps team is very slow to react, which is unfortunate as many roads are places are way off.
I was on vacation recently and Apple Maps gave a weirdly circuitous route from our hotel to a restaurant. I checked Google Maps and it showed the direct route I expected, so I went with that.
Google Maps routed me on to a street that was closed due to construction, Apple Maps was smart enough to route around the construction.
I expect general parity between Apple and Google Maps, I had not expected Apple to have better data.
Something like that is usually because of users reporting the road being closed, not Apple or Google actively doing something better than the other
Totally anecdotal, but I’ve reported a couple of non-existant roads to Google. I occasionally check because I’m curious if they ever updated them, but Google still tells me to drive through a walking path and walk through a fenced off private property. It’s been years at this point. I don’t have an iPhone so I don’t have any experience with Apple maps, but maybe they’re better at taking user reports into account?
I recently purchased a car with CarPlay and use Apple Maps daily. I feel like I’m the only one that finds Apple Maps ok in my city and don’t have issues. I do keep Waze on the phone as a backup though because I’m sure one day I will experience what everyone talks about. :D
My SO just upgraded to an iPhone and she keeps talking about how much better the voice directions from CarPlay with Maps are. Sitting outside a fitting room right now, she said “Now these are my kind of directions” on the way here.
Personally I’m a huge fan of TomTom Go. It’s free to try out, but costs money if you want to use it for anything but a negligible amount.
TomTom has really dialed in the turn by turn directions over the years, and of all the navigation software I’ve tried over the years they still reign on top.
And in a country littered with speed cameras I’m more than happy to cough up $20 a year for a family subscription.
Apple Maps reports speed cameras - fixed and temporary (if drivers report the temporary ones).
Not where I live. Instead of new stuff we got regressions (see my other comment).
Do you also get audible alerts when approaching a speed camera? TomTom also has a feature for average speed measurements where it calculates your average speed between the two cameras. Great feature if you are unsure of where you are instead of dropping your speed to be “safe” (and annoy everyone behind you).
I haven’t tried their app, but my car, unfortunately, has TT built in. Still looks and works as bad as it did 15 years ago on my Windows phone. I accidentally started it once when I didn’t notice that my phone didn’t connect via Android Auto. I’d rather Mitsubishi just included nothing when negotiations with Google failed.
I’ve used TomTom on iPhone since 2010. Improvement is huge.
I do suspect your complaint is more likely to be directed towards the hardware and touch interface of your infotainment than the software, but a satnav with outdated maps is not worth much IMO.
If you’re looking for something for free I can also recommend Here. Also great for when you are traveling where roaming is expensive as it allows offline search and routing.
I’ve been spoiled by free roaming with T-mobile so I just use Google maps everywhere. It also let’s you download areas where you expect to travel in case there’s no reception.
Download yes, but you can’t plan routes offline.
Not sure what you mean by plan routes but you can definitely find destinations in downloaded maps and navigate to them offline.
Apparently we’re both half right.
Not sure if I just never tried driving routes in offline Google Maps, but I see that it works now.
However, other types of routes are unavailable.
https://imgur.com/a/FANmMOr