Apple to use drones, indoor navigation data to improve Maps in 2017
Apple is preparing to use drones, indoor mapping, and better car navigation to improve its Maps apps for iOS and macOS, a report said on Thursday.
On March 22, Apple secured an exemption from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones from DJI, Aibotix and others for commercial purposes, specifically "data collection, photography, and videography," according to Bloomberg. The company has since committed to official commercial drone guidelines introduced in August.
The drones will be used to capture and update map data faster than Apple's current minivan fleet is capable of, one of several sources said. This includes changes to roads, street signs, and construction.
To boost these efforts, the company is reportedly hiring robotics and data collection experts, including at least one person from Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery project. The new Apple team is said to be gathering in Seattle, where Amazon is based.
The indoor mapping technology, meanwhile, should help people find their way through large-scale public areas like airports and museums. This is why Apple bought startup Indoor.io last year, one source said. Giving the interference buildings can cause, indoor navigation will likely depend on a mix of GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even pressure sensors.
In terms of car navigation, the only mentioned upgrade so far includes better guidance when changing lanes.
Both indoor navigation and improved lane assistance are being planned for launch next year, but could theoretically be held back.
On March 22, Apple secured an exemption from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones from DJI, Aibotix and others for commercial purposes, specifically "data collection, photography, and videography," according to Bloomberg. The company has since committed to official commercial drone guidelines introduced in August.
The drones will be used to capture and update map data faster than Apple's current minivan fleet is capable of, one of several sources said. This includes changes to roads, street signs, and construction.
To boost these efforts, the company is reportedly hiring robotics and data collection experts, including at least one person from Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery project. The new Apple team is said to be gathering in Seattle, where Amazon is based.
The indoor mapping technology, meanwhile, should help people find their way through large-scale public areas like airports and museums. This is why Apple bought startup Indoor.io last year, one source said. Giving the interference buildings can cause, indoor navigation will likely depend on a mix of GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even pressure sensors.
In terms of car navigation, the only mentioned upgrade so far includes better guidance when changing lanes.
Both indoor navigation and improved lane assistance are being planned for launch next year, but could theoretically be held back.
Comments
I'll score this as something that Jony Ive probably has nothing to do with.
I switch back and forth between the two apps. I dense urban environments Waze is prone to take too many side roads with traffic lights. Apple Maps is less likely to change your route but when it does, it will stick to more major roads.
Really Apple. Instead of giving all this money to us shareholders every quarter, can you spend some money to ramp up map updates to acceptable levels. If Google can do it, Why can't Apple. I gave them some slack when they first came out, but its now been years that they had time to get their **** together. This is the inherent problem with Tim's regime. Instead of striving to be the best, Slow moving, get by mediocrity will do.
I completely understand that some people think Apple Maps is great. Consider yourself lucky that your city was included in the chosen few but for the rest of the world, Apple Maps is equivolent to google maps of 10 years ago.
Google makes a song and dance about its future products, attracting a lot of press, only to have quite a few of them publicly crash and burn. Apple is secretive, you hardly hear much if anything about r&d projects that don't work out, but things roll out more slowly because of the secretiveness. Pick your poison.