Even the most die-hard Apple fan boy can admit that Apple Maps has had a shaky run thus far. After Apple decided to not renew their Google Maps license in 2012 over Google not allowing iOS users to have turn-by-turn navigation, we’ve been stuck with an Apple made Maps app as the default. Granted over the years of playing catch up, Apple Maps has gotten better but still falls behind Google Maps and Waze.
Apple has known this since launch, Apple CEO Tim Cook even issued an apology for not releasing a premium product when Apple Maps first launched. Knowing that that Apple looked to start a ground up re-build of Maps in 2015. In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue in charge of Apple Maps said,
“We wanted to take this to the next level,” says Cue. “We have been working on trying to create what we hope is going to be the best map app in the world, taking it to the next step. That is building all of our own map data from the ground up.”
Central to this would be to take a page from Google, gathering high-res images and data from vans as they drove around the country. In addition adding in the ability, in a very privacy friendly manner, to tap into anonymous data from millions of iOS users to generate real-time traffic and road condition data Apple Maps should be able to provide a much more useful experience.
To read more about the upcoming version of Apple Maps, check out the TechCrunch feature here.
