Apple Maps, total renewal to become the best

Apple Maps is the subject of a deep renewal that should allow it to process on Google Maps and other location services on a foot of # 39; equality. Vice President Eddy Cue explained in a long interview to TechCrunch that the time has come for the breakthrough and that the first improvements will be seen with the advent of iOS 12 in the region from San Francisco and the cities this look on the bay – starting next fall, everything will be extended to all of Northern California.

There is talk of a gradual paradigm shift and a "map reconstruction". First of all, for a strict respect of privacy, the data collected by the iPhone will be used – without any side effects on autonomy and only if you activate your GPS , new satellite photo data packages and for the first time even those "Apple minivans" equipped with LIDAR cameras and sensors that roam the streets since 2015.

All this combined with 3D cloud points makes it possible to realize in Cupertino complete orthogonal reconstructions of roads with a lot of texture. In short, a volume of potentially useful information for autonomous cars

Apple was supposed to have used these tools for a while, but what we've seen up to now must be data offered by TomTom OpenStreetMap and other vendors . This does not mean that from now on they will do without, but simply that the contribution will be less. And just one day maybe they will disappear completely.

Read also: Apple Maps, to improve them will be used drones

"We want to take it to the next level," badured Cue. "We are working to try to create what I hope will become the best mapping application in the world by moving on to the next step, which is to build our entire data map from nothing."

The preview of the new version of Apple Maps will be displayed week in the San Francisco Bay Area. Especially the novelties related to streets, pedestrian zones, sports sites, building details, etc.

"We do not think that someone is doing a level of work like ours," Cue concluded. "We have not talked to anyone about it, it's one of those things we've managed to keep secret, nobody knows anything about it, we're excited about this launch, and we're going to take it out." section by section in the United States next year.