Roger Fingas
Apple is preparing to use drones, indoor mapping, and better car navigation to improve its Maps apps for iOS and macOS, a report said on Thursday.
On March 22, Apple secured an exemption from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones from DJI, Aibotix and others for commercial purposes, specifically "data collection, photography, and videography," according to Bloomberg. The company has since committed to official commercial drone guidelines introduced in August.
The drones will be used to capture and update map data faster than Apple's current minivan fleet is capable of, one of several sources said. This includes changes to roads, street signs, and construction.
To boost these efforts, the company is reportedly hiring robotics and data collection experts, including at least one person from Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery project. The new Apple team is said to be gathering in Seattle, where Amazon is based.
The indoor mapping technology, meanwhile, should help people find their way through large-scale public areas like airports and museums. This is why Apple bought startup Indoor.io last year, one source said. Giving the interference buildings can cause, indoor navigation will likely depend on a mix of GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even pressure sensors.
In terms of car navigation, the only mentioned upgrade so far includes better guidance when changing lanes.
Both indoor navigation and improved lane assistance are being planned for launch next year, but could theoretically be held back.
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21 Comments
OT: I wonder when their street-level view LiDAR will be released.
Apple Maps works pretty well in the US but needs a lot of work in many less industrialized countries. I am on vacation in the Caribbean and Maps shows roads that veer off into the ocean and is also missing many streets. Almost zero landmarks or points of interest. One interesting note is that Maps shows a sand bar off shore as actual terra firma. I suppose it could be considered land at an extreme low tide but it probably shouldn't be shown on the map as an island.
Itvolcan said:
It's fairly good in the UK now too. It's now my default map app. Google and Tom Tom don't get a look in any more.
This sounds pretty cool.
I'll score this as something that Jony Ive probably has nothing to do with.