Mike Peterson
Reports on Tuesday claimed that Apple Maps was "censoring" directions to Washington, D.C., though there's little reason to believe that's the case.
According to some users on Twitter and reports from various blogs, iPhone users attempting to get directions to Washington were met with a message saying that directions were "not available at this time because of current road conditions."
As of 5:20 p.m. Eastern Time, those messages are no longer showing on Apple Maps. Getting directions to Washington appears to be working normally again.
It's likely that a technical issue or current road conditions caused the problem. Washington is bracing for protests ahead of Congress voting to certify the 2020 election results, and officials have closed many roadways in the area.
The culprit being a technical glitch is also supported by the fact that retrieving directions from "My Location" didn't work, though navigating to Washington from nearby Alexandria did.
There's also a chance that a surge in users trying to get directions to the U.S. capital snarled Apple's system.
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26 Comments
There are a series of assertions in this article unsupported by evidence. Why not just say Maps is down in the area for unexplained reasons? Or contact Apple and ask for an explanation.
Google and Waze which imo are more reliable didn’t have that problem..
This happens occasionally to me in my rural area and it is usually the result of road construction, where a lane may be closed. Since there are few ways to get anywhere it is unnerving to head out and find that the usual route is unavailable - but I've learned to kind of ignore it, and once past the construction zone it picks up the route back up.
Or it could be a bunch of Yahoos on Twitter wanted to cause “outrage” and planted a false story. Twitter is good for that. Alternatively a Yahoo on Twitter had a problem with their phone and tried to blame Apple on Twitter to produce “outrage” among like minded Yahoos.
Anything from Twitter is suspect.