Apple Maps Product Lead David Dorn and Design Lead Meg Frost recently did an interview with CNN to explain the Apple Maps features that were introduced with the iOS 15 update and to explain why iPhone users should choose Apple Maps over other mapping apps like Google and Waze.
According to Dorn, there are three major reasons why Apple Maps is the best choice.
- Apple is making serious investments into Maps to improve it.
- Privacy is central and Apple isn't tracking your location for data purposes when you use Apple Maps.
- Maps is part of the Apple ecosystem and integrates well with other Apple devices and services.
Apple's effort into improving the Maps app can be seen in iOS 15, an update that added new 3D city details in select areas like London, New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. There are also navigation updates that add more detail at complex interchanges. Frost said that Apple wanted to make maps "both safer and visually satisfying to navigate."
As for the 3D landmarks added in the update, each landmark is created by hand. "We pick the amount of detail we find appropriate and create a 3D mesh of the building landmark itself. And we apply it to the base map," Frost told CNN.
The full Apple Maps interview can be read over on CNN's website, and it provides more detail on features like Share ETA, CarPlay, real-time AR walking directions, and more.
Top Rated Comments
For example, where I live it shows that there's a road where there's a bridge defunct for a couple decades. Moreover, it navigates over that "bridge" when I ask it for driving directions. Even in the days of its glory, that bridge was for pedestrians and cyclists only, so it's absurd for Apple to even suggest a car should go there even if it was using some outdated data sources that showed some outdated facts.
I reported it to Apple over two years ago. Nothing has been done about it.
This is why my map application of choice is OsmAnd+. Apple Maps can go pound sand.