A decade after a disastrous launch, is Apple Maps finally good?

Archived version: archive.ph/hguLn

Excerpt (and context):

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.

Sleestak_Chaka,

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

Thalestr,
@Thalestr@beehaw.org avatar

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.

snowbell,
@snowbell@beehaw.org avatar

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.

upstream,

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.

daq,

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.

upstream,

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.

daq,

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.

upstream,

Download yes, but you can’t plan routes offline.

daq,

Not sure what you mean by plan routes but you can definitely find destinations in downloaded maps and navigate to them offline.

upstream,

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.

imgur.com/a/FANmMOr

daq,

Interesting. I guess I’ve only ever used driving directions offline.

In their defense, Google does clearly say this on their website:

Tip: Transit, bicycling, or walking directions are unavailable offline. In your offline driving directions, you can’t get traffic info, alternate routes, or lane guidance.

abhibeckert,

Apple Maps reports speed cameras - fixed and temporary (if drivers report the temporary ones).

upstream,

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).

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