Apple turns to contracted freelancers to help boost accuracy of Apple Maps data

Apple is reportedly using paid freelance contributions to help improve the accuracy of Apple Maps, and may kickstart a new phase in the work later this month.

In France at least, freelancers using a web app — TryRating — are being paid about 54 cents per short-form task, according to iGeneration. Workers are limited to 20 hours and 600 tasks per week, ensuring that it can't become a full-time job.

Rather than hiring and training people itself, Apple is said to be using subcontractors. Recruitment efforts are allegedly happening worldwide, although it's not clear what the pay rates are like outside of France.

People enrolled in the program are presented with search queries, asked to rate the results based on their relevance, and possibly correct any mistakes. According to an iGeneration source who did some of the work, people may end up tackling groups of results based on a similar place or theme.

Apple is said to be preparing a new tool and updated rules for June, enabling an influx of new tasks to work on. The verification system has reportedly been in place since at least Aug. 2016.

Apple Maps has often been criticized for inferior accuracy compared to Google Maps. Apple used Google mapping data until 2012, when it decided to strip the content out of iOS 6 in favor of various other sources. Results were so poor, initially, that there were many complaints about missing or mislabeled data — authorities in Australia had to rescue people who Maps directed into a dangerous national park.

If it's not already, the company may soon be using drones for more regular content updates. At next week's WWDC keynote, it may also announce new features like indoor mapping, and enhanced car navigation such as better lane guidance.

26 Comments

gatorguy 24609 comments · 13 Years

About 7 years ago

Ah, Mechanical Turk....

ericthehalfbee 4489 comments · 13 Years

I find Apple to be pretty fast on Maps updates. I've put in several changes as there's lots of construction in my area (new condos going up) and I get a reply from them within a couple days that they've made the changes. Go check Maps and sure enough it's updated.

tjwolf 423 comments · 12 Years

The meme that Apple Maps is inferior to Google Maps is getting pretty tiring after 5 years - especially since in some (many?) cases it's actually not true anymore. If I had to rate the two on pure (map data) accuracy, Google is still slightly ahead (most annoyingly, Google is still much faster in updating its maps when a flaw is reported - I know this from personal experience having reported a missing road to both companies). Navigation wise, they're about equal and, to me at least, Apple Maps of late seems to have the edge on the currency of traffic data (on several trips now, Google still showed traffic congestion when Apple Maps already reflected a 'green' reality). Google Maps sometimes picks better routes - Apple's estimate of remaining time to destination is more spot-on.

During navigation, Apple Maps is far superior to Google Maps in battery conservation. The former almost never causes my phone to run hot - the latter almost always - i.e., Google Maps sucks my battery dry at a much faster clip.

Where Apple Maps is still much weaker than Google Maps is in searches for businesses or points of interest. There are still many cases when Google Maps finds what I'm looking for after Apple Maps give me nothing.

ericthehalfbee said:

I find Apple to be pretty fast on Maps updates. I've put in several changes as there's lots of construction in my area (new condos going up) and I get a reply from them within a couple days that they've made the changes. Go check Maps and sure enough it's updated.

Then those must be easily checked corrections. Easy changes to major roads can be done relatively fast since traffic flow is reported back to TomTom/Apple so that they can see traffic movement. The issue is for areas that aren't as easily verified. People submitting fake changes have always been a problem.
Fact: People have been known to submit a map change for a much lower than factual speed limit to try and slow down drivers thru their neighborhood. Others have submitted supposedly changes that show no thru-traffic on their street. Still others have sent in fake changes so that some competing business has no easy way to get to it. Others just like making problems.

So without outside verification that what you submitted is actually correct Apple (Tomtom?) would be making a big boo-boo, making Maps worse rather than better

joe28753 82 comments · 17 Years

tjwolf said:

The meme that Apple Maps is inferior to Google Maps is getting pretty tiring after 5 years - especially since in some (many?) cases it's actually not true anymore. If I had to rate the two on pure (map data) accuracy, Google is still slightly ahead (most annoyingly, Google is still much faster in updating its maps when a flaw is reported - I know this from personal experience having reported a missing road to both companies). Navigation wise, they're about equal and, to me at least, Apple Maps of late seems to have the edge on the currency of traffic data (on several trips now, Google still showed traffic congestion when Apple Maps already reflected a 'green' reality). Google Maps sometimes picks better routes - Apple's estimate of remaining time to destination is more spot-on.

During navigation, Apple Maps is far superior to Google Maps in battery conservation. The former almost never causes my phone to run hot - the latter almost always - i.e., Google Maps sucks my battery dry at a much faster clip.

Where Apple Maps is still much weaker than Google Maps is in searches for businesses or points of interest. There are still many cases when Google Maps finds what I'm looking for after Apple Maps give me nothing.

I believe my experience echoes yours. I've recently started using Apple Maps as my main navigator because I've now got Apple CarPlay in my car and can't use Google Maps. I agree that for navigation, Apple is usually equal, more or less sometimes. I have seen a few quirky Apple Maps road / navigation issues that I've reported, and haven't been updated after months of waiting. As I understand it, they share data with TomTom and share data back and forth at some interval. I actually reported my issues directly to TomTom and they say "Fixed" but haven't been reflected on Apple Maps yet. Anyway, it's good enough to use 95% of the time I'd say. However, I still keep Google Maps installed, because it's absolutely the only way I search for new restaurants I want to try, or read reviews of these restaurants, or look up busy times and peak rush times etc. Then once I find where I want to go, I can navigate with Apple Maps in CarPlay.