Apple Maps to Be Rebuilt 'From the Ground Up' With Street-Level and Satellite Data Over the Next Year

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Apple today announced that it will be rebuilding its Maps app "from the ground up" with street-level data collected from its fleet of Apple Maps vehicles, in addition to high resolution satellite imagery.


TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino reports that Apple Maps will see significant improvements as it relates to traffic, real-time road conditions, road systems, new construction, changes in pedestrian walkways, and more, starting with the San Francisco in the next iOS 12 beta and Northern California by fall.

“Since we introduced this six years ago — we won't rehash all the issues we’ve had when we introduced it — we’ve done a huge investment in getting the map up to par,” says Apple SVP Eddy Cue. “When we launched, a lot of it was all about directions and getting to a certain place. Finding the place and getting directions to that place. We’ve done a huge investment of making millions of changes, adding millions of locations, updating the map and changing the map more frequently. All of those things over the past six years.”

“We don’t think there’s anybody doing this level of work that we’re doing,” adds Cue. “We haven’t announced this. We haven’t told anybody about this. It’s one of those things that we’ve been able to keep pretty much a secret. Nobody really knows about it. We’re excited to get it out there. Over the next year, we’ll be rolling it out, section by section in the US.”

Apple says it will be rolling out the improved data section by section in the United States over the next year.

Mark Gurman first reported about Apple's plans to transition to an in-house base map all the way back in 2015.

More details to follow…

Tag: Apple Maps

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