Roger Fingas
Apple on Wednesday updated Apple Maps with new data on EV charging stations and bicycle rental/dropoff points, focusing most of its expanded coverage in Europe.
In the U.K., electric car drivers can now find charging thanks to data from Moovility, a service from Germany's Cirrantic, Bloomberg said. The public bicycle information currently covers London and Paris, and one U.S. city, New York.
Apple first began identifying EV chargers in Maps in July 2016, as a result of a deal with Parkopedia. That improved further with the addition of ChargePoint stations in December.
Bike rental data is a new field for Apple, and the company will have to work hard to catch up with Google Maps, which has pickup and dropoff points listed in several countries.
Apple stripped Google content from its Maps app with the 2012 release of iOS 6. That initially created serious problems, since replacement data — pulled from various third-party sources — was not only sparse but sometimes dangerously inaccurate, and moreover lacking in features people had become accustomed to, such as public transit directions.
Since then Apple has worked to rebuild and enhance Maps as much as possible, most significantly restoring transit directions with 2015's iOS 9.
Future enhancements may include indoor mapping and better car navigation, as well as more regular content updates thanks to drones.
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4 Comments
That's weird, Apple maps is the worst bicycle app out there, it doesn't even have a bicycle option. And when you map a route with the "Walk" option, to stay on trails, as soon as you pass 8mph it automatically switches your status to "Drive" and reroutes you on highways.
Not bicycle friendly at all!
Yes, but will Apple add 'cycling' to methods of transport? I would be very happy, if when choosing 'walk' for my bicycle commute, it no longer tried to put me on the freeway.
In the U.K. I helped with the location of electric charging points in six towns locally. I have checked Apple maps. The data is not yet shown. At one location Apple say no charging point but if the link for further information from parkopedia is clicked they say correctly there is a charging point.
On on a more general point l park daily in the same car park as one of the charging points. It appears that they are not used much yet, perhaps once or twice a month. It will be interesting to see if this changes over the next 5 years.
i feel like this could do it for apple maps and will probably double their users for apple maps......to 4 total users.