Apple’s New Map: Canada
Apple’s redesigned Maps app is now available in Canada following a test of the feature that kicked off back in October. The Canadian expansion comes 11 months after Apple finished the rollout of the revamped Maps app in the United States.
In lieu of driving the area with its data collection vehicles, Apple appears to instead be relying on iPhone probe data to map the road network here. For instance, notice that Apple has added a bridge across the Yukon River here in Dawson City[…]
The bridge that Apple added, however, doesn’t exist[…]
So it seems that Apple is getting iPhone probe data from those riding the ferry across the river and interpreting it as a “road”.
The cartography is undeniably better: it is more precise, just as clear, and has subtler distinctions in cities and parks. The 3D models of buildings look very good, and Look Around is terrific; I am glad that Google no longer has a monopoly on street-level imagery. It is nowhere near as comprehensive as Google’s efforts, but there is imagery for a wider range of places than I imagined.
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I will say that I panned around a few blocks near me and found a few businesses that had pins far away from where they should have been, one business that changed its name last year and had not been updated, and a listing for a bar that closed its doors thirteen years ago, all within a couple of minutes. This is all in a city of over a million people. That’s not to say that I have never found errors with Google Maps, but I find them more rarely and, in a similarly quick glance of the same area, did not notice anything wrong.
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