Apple will improve Apple Maps with your help – and your iPhone

Apple will build its Apple Maps geolocation service again with the information generated by your iPhone.

In an interview with the TechCrunch site, Eddy Cue, vice president of software and services at Apple, said he was working on improving Maps and making it the world's best mapping application. "It means getting our map information from scratch," said Cue.

According to TechCrunch, Apple will get information in two ways: by collecting data from iPhones around the world by taking care of users' privacy, and by means of a fleet of cars equipped with sensors and cameras. The new maps will be launched in San Francisco and Bay Area in the next beta of iOS 12 and in the fall map information will already cover all of Northern California, according to TechCrunch.

Apple will collect information on trips made by users to improve Google Maps, said Cue at TechCrunch. However, they will never retain the entire trip and will never see the starting point and end point of a trip. The information they will collect will be segments of the trip, said the executive, adding that all information will be shared anonymously.

In addition to vans and anonymous user information, Apple uses human cartographers and editors to correct details and avoid minimal errors. Cue said that these publishers can, for example, move the arrival address so that the destination is exactly at the door of the building.

Cue did not say when the new Apple Maps will be launched for all users, but it looks like it will not be soon. "Throughout next year, we will launch section by section of the United States," said the executive.

Apple launched Apple Maps as one of the novelties of iOS 6 (2012) and was a bucket of cold water because previously the operating system was using Google Maps natively . The product was one of the last orders of Scott Forstall, who was at the time vice president of iOS. The launched product has been widely criticized for its features and especially in its comparison with Google Maps.

The debacle of the software would have triggered the release of Forstall and the development of Apple Maps has pbaded into the hands of the other leaders of the company, including Eddy Cue. Since then, the development of Apple Maps has been constant and every year is getting big changes with new iterations of iOS.