[HN Gopher] The day I discovered that Apple Maps is Kind of Good...
___________________________________________________________________
The day I discovered that Apple Maps is Kind of Good now
Author : lakis
Score : 221 points
Date : 2022-05-10 17:31 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (xkcd.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (xkcd.com)
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| I like that when I use Apple Maps, Google doesn't know exactly
| where I am/coming rom/going to. It's hard to trust that
| information is in safe hands and won't be passed off. I'm not
| saying Apple is a saint, but I trust them more to run maps
| without selling my location details. I just wished Apple Maps
| worked better overseas.
| andrewzah wrote:
| I've been using apple maps for probably 3 years now and for
| driving it's great. Both for local navigation and driving from
| the east coast to ~michigan/illinois. My family still swears by
| Waze, though.
|
| The only thing I hate is it uses yelp for the reviews of places.
| Want to read more reviews or view pictures of a new place? Too
| bad, you need to install the yelp app... So I'll use google to
| look up places and then put the address into apple maps.
| joeman1000 wrote:
| I've used nothing but Apple maps for the last 3-4 years.
| Previously I heavily used Gmaps, OpenStreetMap and Waze. The
| issue with the commercial maps was that they undoubtedly would
| sell my data or do other horrible shit with it. OSM was janky, so
| I only use that when I walk around. That left me with Apple maps,
| which has had a bad rep for a while. I tried it and realised that
| the interface looks great, the actual maps are good now, I can
| share my ETA with people, and most of all it's native to the
| phone! Another great benefit is that Apple won't necessarily sell
| my tracking data. Or if they choose to, it's nothing more than
| they would already have from me using the phone anyway.
| changoplatanero wrote:
| Isn't apple maps based on open street map?
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| If only they'd whitelist osmand for the use in Android auto, I'd
| never use Google maps.
|
| For me, their biggest anti-feature is that they show buildings
| only on a very high zoom level, basically when only a couple of
| buildings for the screen. It used to be at a block level, where
| you reliably see many surrounding buildings. OSMand is way better
| now in this regard and can be easily configured.
| more_corn wrote:
| I stopped using google maps because I got sick of them trying to
| force me to log in so they can legally share my location across
| products (I know this is why they do it because I was there at
| TGIF when Eric said so).
|
| Using dark patterns to do a legally questionable thing to defeat
| quite reasonable privacy protections is not how you delight this
| user.
| syngrog66 wrote:
| Google Maps developed an infuriating trait during my own usage of
| it: the shy, disappearing street names!
|
| its a real battle at times messing around with the zoom and
| centering to figure how to make it display the name of a road I
| care about.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I've been using Apple Maps for the last couple of years, and
| they've served me just fine.
|
| I'm told that it is quite dependent upon where you live, though.
| A friend of mine, from Minnesota, says they aren't so good, over
| there.
|
| As far as software goes, I use Apple Maps, because I don't feel
| like paying licensing fees, or including fat dependencies.
|
| I have never received any complaints about the accuracy of the
| maps in my apps.
| protomyth wrote:
| I'm just happy Apple Maps now acknowledges the existence of the
| town I work in and understands the reservation actually has gas
| stations. It's been quite the leap in the last couple of years.
| anon9384929 wrote:
| Does anybody know why Apple Maps will still show directions when
| an iPhone is locked (basically turns the wallpaper into the
| directions), but for Google Maps you have to actually unlock the
| phone?
|
| Isn't this dangerous?
| dijit wrote:
| How do you suppose it's dangerous?
|
| Unlocking the phone while driving to see maps is probably more
| dangerous than anything else I can imagine; you can blame Apple
| for not allowing Google Maps to update the Lock Screen, though
| I understand why it would be that way.
|
| If you're supposing that someone puts in directions and then
| loses their phone while en-route; then that the person who
| finds the phone knows the intended destination? That seems like
| a vanishingly small risk.
| frereubu wrote:
| My muscle memory has been so conditioned by Google Maps (on a
| computer rather than a phone) that the main reason I don't use
| Apple Maps is the zoom in / out actions on trackpads are reversed
| and the drag action is different. I think most other maps systems
| like OpenStreetMap and Mapbox use the Google-style actions too. I
| just cannot get used to the Apple ones and it frustrates me as
| I'd like to use Apple Maps over Google Maps as I'm more convinced
| about Apple's privacy stance, and don't mind Apple Maps having
| access to my contacts, making it easier to say "direction to X's
| house" rather than having to type in an address or postcode.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| The scroll direction is only reversed between windows/mac, both
| Google and Apple Maps work the same, on the same OS.
| frereubu wrote:
| I misremembered - two finger dragging drags the map, unlike
| Google Maps which zooms. You need to press shift on Apple
| Maps to zoom, but you're right that it's the same direction.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| I have been burned too many times by Apple Maps because I don't
| always travel in cities.
|
| The mental overhead of having to double check with google maps
| means I can't imagine using Apple Maps again until Google Maps
| screws me over.
| jeffbee wrote:
| Yeah, I've had too many total botches with Apple Maps that I
| don't trust it on new routes. I always check the route with
| Google, and then maybe use Apple Maps for navigation while
| driving. I also fall back to Google because I can cache maps
| ahead of a trip while Apple will just fail when offline. And
| Google is way better for pedestrian trips, live transit
| information, and business info.
|
| Basically the only niche Apple has earned with me is in my car,
| using CarPlay.
| faebi wrote:
| I wish there was an actually good openstreetmap client with some
| kind of usable review integration. Nothing beats google maps
| reviews. Also all companies are usually most-up-to date in google
| maps. But the openstreetmap data, for me it's way ahead of
| anyone.
| thinkingemote wrote:
| Apple Maps is an openstreetmap client. They use and contribute
| lots of data too. They use other data also. and it's hard to
| know exactly what you are seeing comes from what source.
|
| Apple being so secret means they dont really do open data that
| well.
| rattray wrote:
| Very much agree, especially now that Google Maps seems to be
| monetizing their location listings more (showing sponsored
| results instead of relevant results in map views, etc).
| sefrost wrote:
| The "street view" implementation in Apple Maps is amazing. I
| really recommend you try it if you have an iPhone, the 3D
| sensation is far superior to Google Maps street view which feels
| very flat after using Apple Maps.
| duskwuff wrote:
| Some of Apple's street views in areas they've focused on are
| particularly incredible. Their maps of San Francisco are
| insanely detailed, for example, down to the level of showing
| individual trees, buildings, and street markings.
| baby wrote:
| I'm in this camp, I try to use Apple Maps for navigation when I'm
| driving now. Much better in SF/the bay
| dcow wrote:
| I think what's most interesting is that xkcd _knows_ that it 's
| the right time to release this type of comic. In other words,
| they play a hell of a meta game. Look at this thread, it's mostly
| a bunch of applause for Apple Maps with some healthy critique
| mixed in. I've been happily using Apple Maps for years now and
| would have shared this thought if this had been released 2 years
| ago. But likely not enough other people would have felt the same
| at that time for this to be a generally relevant piece of social
| commentary.
| tempnow987 wrote:
| Long time apple phone users (since the first), never used Maps
| after it had me try to drop someone off at a train station by
| giving me directions to the highway that ran over the train
| station (!!!) while saying I was arriving at the station.
|
| Will try it out again though. Google maps is pretty solid in my
| experience. Voice recognition is great in google apps for some
| reason.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| The hover text on the XKCD mentions OpenStreetMaps but just
| checked openstreetmap.org and they still don't seem to have
| public transit directions. Is there something that prevents them
| from getting that information?
|
| They also didn't understand a text query like "address to
| address"
| Doctor_Fegg wrote:
| OSM is ultimately a crowdsourced, volunteer-surveyed database.
| Timetables (which are essential for public transport routing)
| don't really jibe with that.
|
| You could certainly build a map client which integrated third-
| party timetable data from operators and transport authorities,
| probably using OpenTripPlanner as a backend. But
| openstreetmap.org is designed simply to reflect OpenStreetMap
| data, not any third-party data.
| usrn wrote:
| I mean it does say "Open Street Map" not "Open Rail Map."
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| You got me there lol
| not2b wrote:
| But in many areas (not everywhere) it's very good for hiking
| trails, thanks to lots of volunteer contributors.
| Aachen wrote:
| It's a weird balance where the OpenStreetMap.org website claims
| not to be meant for usability, but everything about it screams
| the opposite. A convenient search box, share button, all the
| stuff you'd expect, except then it doesn't work very well and
| it's even worse on mobile.
|
| Officially, it's a tech demo to showcase what you can do with
| the data. Unofficially, crazies like me use it daily but need
| to fall back to other websites for various purposes:
|
| - overpass-turbo.eu for data queries (showing all the
| tourism=viewpoint nodes in an area, or all the supermarkets,
| for example)
|
| - OsmAnd for simpler queries like looking for a nearby bench
| while on the move (note that this also works fully offline, the
| only data it ever needs is for map file updates or if you want
| stuff like satellite imagery)
|
| - OsmAnd for showing which of the fifteen bus stops across
| three areas my bus will actually be at. For example, this bus
| station has stop positions inside, outside, on the other side
| of the street with a traffic light to cross, around the
| corner... https://snipboard.io/DJUbVd.jpg It's madness, I
| walked up and down the whole area twice (took a while, missed
| my connection) before discovering the stop position around the
| corner, shown on the left on this screenshot. Had I just used
| OSM, it would have been clear where to go. Most transport apps
| don't show this, they just tell you to go and find H13
| somewhere. Link to the bus line object shown in screenshot,
| btw: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1514901
|
| - map.meurisse.org for distance measurement
|
| - maps.openrouteservice.org for more complex routing, e.g. with
| waypoints or time estimation with a specific maximum speed
|
| - when driving somewhere unfamiliar or with a tight deadline,
| I'll fall back to google maps which is the only source of
| accurate traffic info that I know of (in NL there are loops in
| the road which are open data, but idk if anyone built a site
| around it, and with the public transport network I don't drive
| there often anyway)
|
| To your specific question, OsmAnd can actually do public
| transport routing effectively in various countries using the
| data in OSM which is absolutely mind blowing impressive to me.
| But at the same time, I'm not sure why they bothered because
| without time table info it's pretty useless.
| Doctor_Fegg wrote:
| I think that's absolutely fair comment, but osm.org isn't
| deliberately hard-to-use - it's just that not a vast amount
| of effort has gone into the frontend. If you enjoy hacking on
| the codebase then contributions are very much welcome. It
| would be great to get some of the mobile CSS issues sorted,
| for example. The main site is Rails and JS, while Nominatim
| (the search backend) has bits of Python and PHP. Happy to
| give further pointers if you're interested.
| [deleted]
| jorvi wrote:
| I see all these people popping corks to Apple Maps, but all I
| read is
|
| > anglosphere
|
| > anglosphere
|
| > anglosphere
|
| If you would step out of your bubble, you would realize how
| terrible Apple Maps is aside from a few blessed regions.
| hyakosm wrote:
| In Quebec, Apple Maps is pretty good for directions in french
| language. I asked relatives in France and they say Apple Maps
| has improved a lot, and is better than Google Maps on public
| transit because of the better lisibility of lines, easy to use
| integration of realtime schedules (one click on a stop) and
| subway stations maps.
| [deleted]
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| > If you would step out of your bubble, you would realize how
| terrible Apple Maps is aside from a few blessed regions.
|
| Okay, but I'm trying to get around inside this blessed region,
| so you'll forgive me being happy that there's an option that
| works here without being Google.
| allisvancity wrote:
| what map applications work best in your non-anglophone region
| of interest?
| matyasrichter wrote:
| In Czechia, for example, there's a fairly successful (in some
| ways even superior) Google Maps competitor in Mapy.cz. Google
| Maps are better in Prague and other larger cities. Mapy.cz
| focused on providing features Google didn't really care
| about, like mapping hiking and cycling trails or having
| nearly every backcountry road covered in their Street View
| alternative.
|
| https://mapy.cz
| usrn wrote:
| All modern map apps are completely terrible. Most of the time
| Apple maps doesn't draw _any_ labels. The actual map is almost
| purely decorative.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| Agreed, I hate when streets on maps don't have labels. It would
| be so easy to do.
| zimpenfish wrote:
| I've been bitten by this recently and I think it's because
| they're still following paper map rules for labels - like
| they'll[1] put the street name halfway down the street even
| if you're zoomed into the first 5% of it because that's what
| you'd do on a paper map and it would work fine there.
|
| (I'd also like the option for bigger / contrastier labels and
| a way to turn off all the business names because 99% of the
| time I don't want them cluttering up the map when I'm just
| flaneuring about London.)
|
| [1] Apple Maps and Google Maps both suffer from this. maps.me
| also suffers from it but inconsistently - sometimes it'll put
| it at 50%, sometimes it'll double up at 33% and 66%,
| sometimes it'll just not label a road...
| insickness wrote:
| Oh my god, this is such a huge pet peeve of mine,
| particularly when walking or riding a bike. They draw out the
| path on the map but 90% of the streets aren't labeled,
| including the street you're supposed to turn on.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| Maybe something on Open Street Map? Worst case, it's all open
| source so you could hack that back into a client.
| hawski wrote:
| When I need to orient myself better and especially when
| outdoors on foot I prefer mapy.cz, they have also a very nice
| Android app (I don't know if they have one for iPhones) which
| also gives offline maps. I think they at least partially use
| OSM, but very nice presentation and smoothness is there. Much
| better than OSM-And (which last time I used a few years ago).
| severus_snape wrote:
| OsmAnd "online maps" are much smoother than the default
| vector maps, because your phone doesn't have to render them
| (they also take more space).
|
| I find OsmAnd incredible for
|
| - hiking (lots of useful maps, possibility to add overlays
| like mountain slopes, satellite images, possibility to add
| maps from other sources as long as you have the tile URL, all
| maps can be downloaded and used offline, great Altitude/Slope
| graphs, POI searching),
|
| - cycling (navigation works very well, CyclOSM shows useful
| information, BRouter for serious bike routing),
|
| - driving (navigation works offline, good as a backup or if
| you don't like Waze showing you McDonald's ads every time you
| stop).
|
| Also it's a free software (that you can still pay to help the
| developers).
| bsilvereagle wrote:
| HERE maps was one of the last to keep scales and was guaranteed
| to label a street if you zoomed in. But after looking at their
| web viewer, both features have been dropped.
|
| Most "map" apps are more for exploring where gas/food/etc is so
| directions can be generated and less about being a useful map.
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| I find it almost impossible to read street names, park names,
| etc on Google Maps.
| jon_adler wrote:
| I prefer Waze over both Apple and Google Maps in the U.K. The
| chosen routes are better and the traffic, police and speed camera
| reports seem very accurate.
| smhinsey wrote:
| Apple Maps desperately needs an offline mode, but for me, it's
| better in LA on the freeways because they at least make an
| attempt to show you what lane to be in. Lane guidance usually
| works on surface streets, too, which is nice but not as
| important, except when it's vital. I seem to remember Google Maps
| having this at one point but they certainly don't care enough to
| lately, as far as I can tell.
| wwalexander wrote:
| I prefer Apple Maps in absolutely every way except their business
| info. Many businesses are missing, listed but no longer
| operating, or have incorrect/outdated business hours and other
| metadata. I do my best to add or correct info via the in-app
| crowdsourcing interface, but it often takes a long time for the
| information to be reflected if at all.
|
| That being said, it's hard to compete with Google on data
| munging. Besides, if I'm actually looking for info on a business
| besides it's location, I'd just Google it or visit its website
| anyways--especially post-pandemic as businesses close, open, and
| change hours so frequently.
| paxys wrote:
| I know someone who worked at Google Maps in this area, and
| believe it or not the business directory problem is probably
| harder to solve than the rest of the app put together. You can
| fine tune map parsing and routes and algorithms all you like
| till they are good enough for every reasonable use case, but
| there's really no technical solution for a small restaurant
| that has no online presence and simply opens and closes when it
| feels like it. Google crunches data from a hundred different
| sources - looking up local directories, cold calling every
| restaurant in the world, mailing them postcards, measuring
| visitor foot traffic, analyzing data from street view, looking
| at community edits - and draws a somewhat reasonable picture.
| It's borderline impossible for anyone else to do this.
|
| Another feature Google Maps excels at is estimation. If the app
| tells me I'll get to my destination at 3:24 when I start the
| route, I will really get there there at 3:24 no matter what. I
| don't know how they do it, but no one else is even close to
| that accurate.
| gameshot911 wrote:
| Re: estimation - I'm convinced it even factors in that I
| speed a bit beyond the posted limit! No longer can I get the
| satisfaction of arriving earlier than the ETA.
| amelius wrote:
| They could lobby for laws that require business owners to
| publish their data, but I suppose then they would lose their
| advantage.
| atombender wrote:
| Not too long ago, something weird happened to Google Maps in
| Norway: A lot of places were just names of ordinary people
| like "Ole Olsen" and "Anette Andersen", scattered around in
| residential areas with no store front.
|
| The simple explanation -- not confirmed, but it's easy enough
| to deduce from the evidence -- is that someone at Google
| imported a business directory of Norwegian businesses that
| also included sole proprietorships ( _enkeltpersonforetak_ ).
|
| Here [1] is a screenshot of a random area of Oslo I zoomed
| into.
|
| In Norway, it's very common to establish a sole
| proprietorship if you are self-employed (which includes
| professionals like artists and authors) or have some kind of
| business income on the side. About 3.7% of Norway's
| population has a sole proprietorship.
|
| The problem, of course, is that pretty much all of these are
| just people's own homes, not stores or office spaces
| accessible to the public. So it's nonsensical to put them all
| on the map. Somebody screwed up.
|
| I've reported the issue, but of course they never replied,
| and the issue still exists. Now and then I'll report a
| business as erroneous, but there are around 216,000 of them.
|
| [1] https://i.imgur.com/pI42FoP.jpg
| carterschonwald wrote:
| There were several interesting businesses that shut down
| early 2020 that had an interesting approach to getting high
| quality business data: send actual people/dedicated staff to
| a neighborhood and document all the businesses!
|
| Turns out, subject to actually having a working business
| overall, this gets you way higher quality location data.
| DeRock wrote:
| > Another feature Google Maps excels at is estimation. If the
| app tells me I'll get to my destination at 3:24 when I start
| the route, I will really get there there at 3:24 no matter
| what. I don't know how they do it, but no one else is even
| close to that accurate.
|
| I remember reading this a few years ago: https://web.archive.
| org/web/20180221091712/https://arturrr.c.... Their conclusion
| is that Apple Maps gave the most accurate estimations.
| antipaul wrote:
| Business info in Apple Maps is wrong even in SF and NYC. It's
| really bad.
| burlesona wrote:
| I run into this occasionally so when knowing business hours is
| really important for some reason I usually call to double
| check. I like that the phone number is right there, and the
| link to open yelp.
|
| Re: corrections, I've only done it once, but when I discovered
| Apple had a coffee shop on the map that didn't exist I
| submitted a correction, and to my surprise I got a thank you
| reply and saw the map corrected in under 24 hours. I thought
| that was pretty good.
| m463 wrote:
| I don't know any system that has good business hours.
|
| I think this mostly because just about every business on the
| planet has changed their hours - multiple times - during the
| pandemic.
| BoardsOfCanada wrote:
| Agreed. But with google maps I can suggests changes and add
| info and it will be accepted, I can't to do that with Apple
| Maps. Maybe that's part of why Google Maps has better info.
|
| (Or maybe I just haven't been able to figure it out how to
| contribute to Apple Maps, I even googled how to do it and got
| to a place where business owners could enter details about
| their own business)
| buttersbrian wrote:
| Split household. Apple Maps in Carplay is garbage in the default
| layout, zoom level, and way it organizes the screen while driving
| compared to AndroidAuto + Maps.
|
| When searching for information about when something is open, etc,
| Maps is leagues better.
|
| Like others have mentioned, I like the lighter 'tone' of Apple
| Maps directions compared to google.
|
| 1) Google maps, 2) Waze, 3) Apple Maps.
| tshaddox wrote:
| I wonder if that depends heavily on the particular CarPlay
| display and implementation. My car has a fairly large portrait
| display and Apple Maps is vastly more readable at a glance (and
| IMO aesthetically pleasing) than Google Maps via CarPlay. Also,
| Apple Maps is able to put the next turn information on my
| instrument cluster, which is perhaps a CarPlay API that Apple
| doesn't give third-party CarPlay navigation apps.
| jeffbee wrote:
| That's interesting because in my car (a Honda) it is Android
| Auto which puts navigation info on the instrument cluster
| while CarPlay does not, with either Apple or Google maps.
| buttersbrian wrote:
| Quite possible. We use both in our 2021 Forrester, and
| Carplay gives very little space in the view to the maps.
| Google use to keep maps very 'simple', but Apple does the
| simple much better (aesthetically).
|
| The moment you need to dig in, Apple maps fails me. Finding
| Locations (via voice while driving or otherwise), hours of
| operation, or traffic theres no comparison.
|
| Also, walking mode and public transportation is great on
| Google Maps. Had some trouble in Chicago with wife's apple
| maps doing either on multiple occasions.
|
| One thing to note though -- IPhones have great gps stability.
| My wife's iphone often does a better job with gps and that
| can kill the whole app experience before you get started
| especially in a new location or a dense urban area with tall
| buildings etc.
| tshaddox wrote:
| I have a 2020 Outback with the tall 11.6 inch screen. I'm
| not familiar with the options on other models or model
| years. I totally agree with everything else you said,
| except that Apple's traffic info seems reliable (granted,
| I'm in the Bay Area). I only use Apple Maps for in-car
| navigation and for storing my own lists.
| buttersbrian wrote:
| My wife wanted the outback for that screen alone. A
| screen that large would probably make me feel less
| annoyed by the cramped maps in the dashboard mode.
|
| Oh, I totally agree that Apple's traffic is solid. Google
| Maps seems more responsive to traffic. I will see Speed
| traps, bad traffic, etc come and go quicker on gMaps than
| Apple -- completely non scientific observations. YMMV
| bitwize wrote:
| Apple Maps is objectively superior to Google Maps, especially
| when it comes to directions and vehicular navigation. Fite me.
| polalavik wrote:
| Apple Maps does some insane stuff. For example, it overlays
| landscaping - trees / plants - in front of the route I'm trying
| to drive. I do not need cute digital obstacles in the way of my
| map. Just tell me how to get there!
| navanchauhan wrote:
| It's so much easier to navigate with Apple Maps (when it works).
| Hearing "turn right at the stop sign" or "go past these lights"
| is so much more helpful than "after 800m, turn right"
| ttcbj wrote:
| I haven't really tried apple maps since it came out and was
| bad. However, one thing I dislike about Google maps nav is how
| formal it is, even in areas that I have driven around for
| years.
|
| Often, I will drive to a hike where I need detailed navigation
| as I get outside my comfort zone, but I am completely familiar
| with the highways near me. It would be so much clearer if it
| just said "take I-270 south in half a mile" instead of, "Using
| exit 272, use the second from the right lane to take I-270
| south, I-270 North, then stay left at the fork to take I-270
| south." I know how to get on I-270 south, all you need to do is
| tell me that is where I am going, not the minutia on how to do
| it.
|
| I can see how the latter is useful for someone passing through,
| but google maps knows I've been through that intersection
| hundreds of times. It's really distracting and
| counterproductive for me. I wish there was some "give short
| instructions in my area" type setting that would simplify
| instructions in this case.
| usui wrote:
| Google generally has a goldmine of personal data that it
| could use to improve your user experience and make driving
| better, same with Search and YouTube. The past decade has
| shown Google is content with only using your personal
| information for serving you ads, not improving other
| functions. I wish what you suggested could exist too.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Probably because people scream bloody murder when they use
| personal information for anything other than the most
| critical, documented business functions (i.e., serving
| ads.)
| usui wrote:
| I have mine set to meters as well, but for some instructions it
| will randomly say "after 1000 feet, turn right". I also agree
| that Apple Maps's relative instruction giving to be a much
| better design, it's almost as if they know that they build
| things to be useful for humans and not robots.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| I found I really appreciated Apple Maps' relative directions
| also take into account differences in context of walking rather
| than driving. I've used Apple Maps for walking directions
| between bars and between the relative directions and Apple
| Watch integration it felt like magic even (especially?) while
| intoxicated.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| I came here to say this. When there is a series of lights
| coming up, I don't know which light is X metres away.
| kevincox wrote:
| I disagree. If the distance is accurate (I've had a few trips
| where Google Maps seemed to be 10s ahead of my car location)
| then I don't need to worry about looking at lights or stop
| signs and deciding if these are the ones they are talking about
| or the one in half a block. I can easily tell that the next
| turn is more than 50m and this is the one I need.
| [deleted]
| jmyeet wrote:
| Ok, so I guess Apple Maps is the new DDG. By this I mean, every
| DDG related thread immediately descends into anecdotes about
| "Google Search is terrible, DDG is much better" that always
| leaves me wondering "Are you using the same Google Search I am?
| Because it doesn't appear you are".
|
| Google Maps' integration with, say, various forms of public
| transit APIs (in paritcular) is second to none. Like, it's not
| even close. It's true Apple Maps is a lot better than it was but
| most of those improvements, in my experience, have been very US-
| centric, meaning the gap is much, much wider in other countries.
| Google Maps listings are still way better.
|
| What I suepect is that the same people who have decided they hate
| Google have now let that define their opinions on Apple vs Google
| Maps just like they have with DDG vs Google Search.
|
| I can only recall two current complaints I have with Google Maps:
|
| 1. I've come across a listing that claims to be a supermarket
| chain. It's not. It's a local market. I've filed corrections
| about this. A year later it still shows the wrong supermarket
| chain. No idea why. You can see it on street view; and
|
| 2. Maps decided to hijack the Menu tab on restaurants to use an
| ML pipeline from someone who really wanted to get promoted by
| classifying photos tagged at that location into menu items
| instead of, you know, just showing me the menu PDF on the
| website.
|
| Oh and while I'm airing complaints, there's a standard for
| showing exchange rates. Google "GBP to USD" and you'l get an
| answer of 1.23 (as of this writing). By the standard the entire
| finance industry uses this should be shown to 4 decimal places.
| It used to up until about 6 years ago. Someone changed it. It's
| clearly wrong. It's annoying. And if anyone from Google reads
| this, please fix this for God's sake.
|
| Unrelated to Maps but you have to try.
| lostgame wrote:
| Huh?
|
| Here in Toronto I find Apple Maps _much_ more reliable for the
| TTC (public transit in Toronto) than Google Maps, and have for
| a couple years.
|
| Google Maps is quite dumb on what routes to take me on, and
| oblivious to the existence of certain buses on routes where
| Apple Maps gives me pretty much my best route - first time,
| every time.
|
| Guess your experience is different. I'm personally grateful
| there's a better option.
| m_a_g wrote:
| In London, Google Maps is a joke for public transport. We use
| Citymapper.
| alsodumb wrote:
| I love Google maps but I don't think Google has any edge over
| other map services in transit API integration (partly because
| of what they did).
|
| Pretty much every major transit agency publishes their schedule
| in two standard formats these days: GTFS for static scheduled
| and GTFS real-time for real-timr info. The G used to stand for
| Google before it was generally adapted and now it stands for
| general. All apps use the same data for showing transit feeds.
|
| There are some exceptions, such as cities where the transit
| agency has an exclusive agreement with Google maps but that's
| becoming there.
|
| There's a niche area where some apps focus solely on transit,
| adding a lot more data or integrating non standard custom APIs.
| Transit (which I love, sick UI) https://transitapp.com/ and
| CityMapper are two of them.
| buildbot wrote:
| Google Maps has actually led me wrong far more than Apple Maps,
| obv. anecdotal. I feel like Google Maps has way too much ML
| applied to it, and now that is coming back to bite it hard. The
| last time I used google maps was on a forest road, following
| directions to a remote-ish campsite. It literally had mistaken a
| light path through the trees as a road, and then had us try to
| turn into the bushes. Looking at the map of the area is was clear
| the road finding algorithm has mistaken a lot of small paths and
| tracks of light colored trees (!!!) as valid roads.
| jorpal wrote:
| And some people trust it without a second thought. This past
| New Years there was a huge snow storm in the Tahoe area, many
| roads were closed, and clueless Bay Area people were following
| google maps directions around the closures into unmaintained
| mountain roads in a huge blizzard.
| gumby wrote:
| even in the days of paper maps people would drive to tahoe
| utterly unprepared. Much as I dislike Google I don't think
| they can be blamed for clueless Bay Area people.
| fennecfoxen wrote:
| Google Maps also has an unfortunate tendency to go route-
| flapping, telling me that first one route, then another, is
| better. Often these routes diverge quite some distance away,
| and the "best" route switches back and forth a lot. I am also
| assumed to opt in to each route change unless I click "No
| thanks" -- even if I was previously offered the route and chose
| another one. I am not going to click No Thanks, because I'm
| riding a motorcycle, thanks; therefore I use Apple Maps.
| barkingcat wrote:
| That auto-opt in for alternate route is the worst feature
| ever.
|
| I've had cases where I was on a highway far away from any
| exits and there was a jam caused by an accident, and google
| maps started flip flopping between 2 different "optimal"
| routes that required me to first take one exit that's ahead
| of me, and then another exit that was far behind me.
| Presumably google was seeing the traffic jam and determined
| that my current route is no longer optimal, and wanted me to
| do a U Turn on a highway where there are no exits.
| duskwuff wrote:
| Apple Maps will suggest alternate routes with an automatic
| opt-in if you don't respond, but, in my experience, it's
| much more conservative about making those suggestions.
| boardwaalk wrote:
| I _absolutely despise_ that auto route change feature.
| Whether (but especially) on a motorcycle or in a car. It's
| dangerous and it fills me with rage.
|
| Also, that software is so non-configurable these days: Is an
| "Automatically accept better routes" checkbox that esoteric?!
| I'd say I want to find the product developer responsible but
| it seems like it's most of them these days. It's like not
| being able to turn off auto-playing previews in streaming
| apps.
|
| Sorry, rant over.
| uptown wrote:
| I use Apple Maps for navigation and it is mostly good. The only
| gripe I have is that they don't seem to handle the predictive
| approach to a turn as well as Google does. What I mean by that is
| that the image of where my vehicle is in relation to a turn
| appears as if I have more road to drive before I've reached the
| turn, whereas I feel Google does a better job of factoring in
| vehicle speed into where it places the vehicle on the map in
| relation to the turn. On Apple it feels like it is "late".
| enlyth wrote:
| I've been using Apple Maps routinely for navigation in the UK for
| at least a year now, and I have to agree, it's quite amazing
| these days to the point where I prefer it to driving with Google
| Maps
|
| I did have some trouble with it while driving in Norway, but even
| Google Maps had issues there where it couldn't recognize which
| road I'm on, and the ferries were a bit confusing
| frereubu wrote:
| This happens with both though. I've had Google try to send me
| the wrong way down a one-way street, as well as take me round
| the houses because it thought a two-way street was one-way.
| We'd need some kind of large study to say which was worse in
| that respect.
| FloatArtifact wrote:
| Probably user error, but I can't ever seem to get apples maps to
| orient with the car like Google's automatically does.
| cyral wrote:
| There's a button (I think shaped like a compass arrow) to do
| this, which toggles between facing north and facing the
| direction you are traveling.
| xdrosenheim wrote:
| I do not own an Apple device, but when my sister had to tell me
| directions one day, in my car, Apple maps told us to drive down a
| bike only street. The entrance is blocked so cars can not get
| through. That street has never been for cars, so I have no idea
| why it would tell us to go that way.
| srvmshr wrote:
| I have been using Google Maps, Apple Maps & Here interchangeably.
|
| Apple Maps is better than Google Maps in metros, while the
| reverse is true beyond suburbs & in freeways. Google Maps seems
| to work better in South & SE Asia. In supported regions however,
| HERE maps is better than both of them. It is a shame that app
| lost traction.
| nano9 wrote:
| Apple Maps has been good for a while now (3 years?) at least on
| core functionality (navigation, street names). I would say in
| terms of navigation, Apple Maps is superior to Google Maps. Apple
| Maps is more accurate about which lane to be in, shows the
| stoplights to pass before crucial turns, and labels the streets
| to skip over before turning near your destination.
|
| They don't have the same content features of Google Maps yet. You
| may have noticed Apple integrates with Yelp to provide you with
| feedback on restaurants and points of interest, but in my opinion
| Yelp is unreliable. Also since Google cares less about marketing
| a pro-privacy stance, Google shows you how busy locations are,
| which can be useful.
|
| On a more neutral note, it would be nice if either Map app re-
| routed common commute routes based on traffic incidents. Anyone
| who commutes down a contraflow lane knows that an accident in
| that lane makes it worse than the main route.
| axg11 wrote:
| Apple Maps becoming good is a testament to Apple's engineering
| culture and relentlessness. They made the decision, 9 years ago,
| to provide an alternative to Google Maps. They kept iterating on
| the product despite being inferior during the earlier days. Most
| other big tech co's printing the amount of cash that Apple has
| would have abandoned the maps product and paid the Google tax.
| mcintyre1994 wrote:
| I'm always surprised that Google never implemented Apple's
| feature of telling you what exit to take at a tube station. It
| makes Apple way better for any journey that involves a large tube
| station in London. Apple has had that for a long time now too, I
| think since they had public transit directions.
| kingcharles wrote:
| This is super important in London which has some of the widest-
| spaced exits I've encountered - you can easily go half a mile
| wrong if you pick the incorrect exit at some stations.
| gmac wrote:
| The Apple Maps navigation view gives much less your actual
| perspective and much more an overhead view than either Google
| Maps or TomTom, and when driving this causes me to make way too
| many wrong turns (especially at roundabouts).
|
| I really wish they'd fix this. I've even wondered sometimes if it
| could be part of their data deal with TomTom that they won't
| complete by offering proper first-person perspective navigation.
| slipperlobster wrote:
| > make way too many wrong turns (especially at roundabouts)
|
| I don't know how - Apple Maps clearly states to take the Nth
| exit out of the roundabout for me.
| richardatlarge wrote:
| I only used AM when I was out of the country and didn't have
| data. You could load the maps at the hotel and they would still
| work, I think because they're vector based whereas GM is pixel- ?
| cmroanirgo wrote:
| I thought i'd missed something and Apple Maps was now available
| on non-Apple platforms. Sadly, it's still iOS and macOS only. The
| top search results all suggest using DDG and using the maps
| option there, which apparently uses Apple Maps.
|
| :sigh:
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| https://developer.apple.com/maps/web/ MapKit for web!
| plaidfuji wrote:
| Apple Maps is good for _directions_ now ... Google Maps is still
| much better as a kind of digital Yellow Pages ... to figure out
| where you want to go to begin with, what's open, get reviews of
| stores and vendors, as an entry point to food delivery... you
| know, all of the monetizable parts of a maps app.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| That's because Apple Maps uses Yelp as its POI database, and
| Yelp isn't impartial, business owners can pay to be higher up
| in the search results, and to remove negative reviews.
|
| Changing their POI source to something else would be the single
| biggest improvement Apple could make to Maps.
| maupin wrote:
| Well, that's reason enough for me to prefer Google Maps.
| jader201 wrote:
| No kidding. Yelp is an abysmal dark-pattern-laden product,
| and I avoid it at all costs. Why would anybody partner with
| them. It's like partnering with GoDaddy.
| oceanplexian wrote:
| Not to mention Yelp isn't a "thing" outside of boutique
| restaurants and coffee shops in busy metro areas, while
| Google Reviews are for the other 95% of businesses and
| locations.
| supertofu wrote:
| Is yelp still a thing in those areas anymore? It's mobile
| website is nonexistent and I can't be the only one that
| never cared to download the app.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| Yelp is still pretty good for major U.S. metropolitan
| areas. Not sure what's beyond that, other than
| Tripadvisor is like Yelp for the rest of the world.
| chipotle_coyote wrote:
| I've noticed that in the last few months, Apple Maps has been
| showing their own ratings, and sometimes even prompting me
| for a thumbs up/down rating, for certain businesses. I
| haven't read anything about them starting their own POI
| database to eventually replace Yelp, but that makes me
| suspicious -- and it would certainly fit Apple's modus
| operandi of owning their own data/infrastructure as much as
| possible.
| dmart wrote:
| Yeah, Apple Maps is still not as good for finding points of
| interest. A huge missing feature is that there's no equivalent
| to Google Maps' "Search this location" button. So if you search
| for something and then move the map, you just have to randomly
| pinch and scroll a bit and hope that it'll refresh with the new
| search radius.
| wenc wrote:
| Google Maps will even tell you if something is in stock. I
| searched Sunkist Zero Sugar on Google Maps and it showed me
| all the grocery stores in my area that carried it and "in
| stock (updated today)".
| misterprime wrote:
| That's impressive. Thanks for the heads up. I never would
| have tried searching for a specific product that way. I
| have searched for "burger" or "pizza" successfully, but a
| specific product along with an inventory check? Wow.
| dylan-m wrote:
| They will never do it willingly, but I wish Google would
| split the POI stuff out of their maps app. It's all getting
| incredibly bloated the way it is, anyway. Then I could look
| up a place in there - because it's an excellent service - but
| use Apple Maps for the rest.
| chias wrote:
| I wish the same. In general when I need to call a local
| business (plumber, electrician, pizza delivery, etc.) the
| easiest way I know how is to look them up on google maps,
| then hit "call". It seems... silly... to basically have to
| look up directions to a place on a map I have no intention
| of going, simply because it's the closest thing I have to
| an online mobile-accessible local phone book.
| iainmerrick wrote:
| That is a bit silly, but on the other hand, sometimes
| it's important to check that you're calling the right
| branch, or that you aren't confusing a business with a
| similarly-named one in another city, and a map view is
| good for that.
| kingcharles wrote:
| I used Apple Maps for directions for the first time since it
| launched the other day, thinking it would be a piece of crap,
| and was very pleasantly surprised. The results were the same as
| Google, but presented in a better UI.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Apple Maps still cannot give directions via bicycle yet GMaps
| can. Maybe it's better in other cities, but that doesn't help me.
| Lio wrote:
| Boo! Still no cycle maps outside of London in the UK.
| alaricus wrote:
| Isn't Apple Maps basically TomTom?
|
| Also I find that where I live (Germany) OpenStreetMaps is
| superiour to both Apple and Google.
| kevinventullo wrote:
| Apple relies on a massive number of data sources for maps:
| https://gspe21-ssl.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-221.html
| Dave_Rosenthal wrote:
| Not anymore. At launch the road networks was from TomTom, but
| for years now they have been in the process of completely
| redoing it from scratch themselves. From a quick Google search
| it looks the new data rolled out to Germany a couple of months
| ago.
| grishka wrote:
| Apple Maps is still utterly useless in Russia. There are no
| buildings. There are no public transit routes. Points of interest
| are all messed up. I've never dared to try to get directions from
| it, but I'd assume that not only would it not pick the optimal
| route, it would probably suggest you drive wrong way on a one-way
| street or something like that.
| gumby wrote:
| That's really interesting. I was there for the world cup a few
| years ago and Apple Maps coverage of the cities with games was
| quite good, even away from the stadia. I actually only attended
| one game as it was an easy way to get a visa at the time, but
| did poke around some of the other cites.
| grishka wrote:
| Oh, interesting. I just opened Maps.app on macOS after
| reading your comment, and the building shapes are finally
| there, at least in St Petersburg downtown?! The restaurants
| are mostly correct, too. Something must have changed
| recently. It wasn't this good even just a month or two ago.
|
| Still no public transit, and still Apple-only (I use a Mac
| but an Android phone), so still useless for me personally,
| but it's nice to see it improve.
|
| Though several years ago it was definitely just streets,
| parks, and rivers.
| bigtex wrote:
| Still a big fan of Waze because you can report hidden police and
| speed traps.
| supertofu wrote:
| How exactly are people supposed to do this while driving?
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| It's the passenger's job. That, and keeping an eye out for
| deer.
| flatiron wrote:
| At least my car with car play it's two buttons on the big
| display.
| ArchOversight wrote:
| "Hey Siri, report a hazard on the road"
|
| "Hey Siri, report a speed trap"
| codyogden wrote:
| Apple Maps has this as well. You can report police, hazards,
| and accidents.
| [deleted]
| sarks_nz wrote:
| In New Zealand, Apple Maps is the worst kind of useless,
| especially when paired with Siri. The Dumb and Dumber of the tech
| world.
|
| If I ask directions for a cafe within a 5km radius, either of
| these scenarios will occur: 1. Siri won't understand. Eg: Shelly
| Bay Bakery -> Directions to Shelly Bay. 2. Siri will understand
| and direct me to a cafe approximately 10,000 kms away, and then
| refuse to find me a suitable route.
|
| Google Maps just works.
| clydethefrog wrote:
| I just downloaded it to try it again, but I quickly discovered it
| has no offline support.
| h00kwurm wrote:
| as a person often on a motorcycle, apple maps has completely won
| me over for directions while riding. i have found it more natural
| to follow and more precise (eg. lane choices, light counts) with
| equivalent traffic information.
|
| edit to add - google maps directions have felt (borderline?)
| dangerous at times. i haven't yet experienced that with apple
| maps.
| davidjfelix wrote:
| Honestly I prefer Apple Maps over Google these days. This is
| mostly opinion and feel, but it "feels" like:
|
| * Google is becoming less correct
|
| - ex: "use the right 3 lanes" when only the right 2 lanes work
|
| * Google is taking me on routes that are much less safe and more
| challenging
|
| - ex: taking small side roads to a left turn onto a busy road
| with poor visibility and no light rather than right turns to the
| main road and signaled lefts
|
| * Google is hammering me with unimportant details
|
| - ex: I don't care that I'm on the fastest route
|
| - ex: I don't care that something 4 hours away has a traffic jam
|
| - ex: I don't need to be told to stay on just because an exit
| ramp has a disappearing lane
|
| * Google tries to send me on wild boondoggles literally all the
| time. It sends me off highway in an attempt to avoid traffic,
| along with several other poor lost souls who are aimlessly
| listening to the same computer as me while we drive through some
| rural thru street.
|
| So I stopped using google. Apple isn't perfect but it's
| unsurprising for long road trips and provides reliable
| instruction that follows major road paths.
| erichurkman wrote:
| My most recent one was Google Maps routing me off of
| interstates onto narrow rural roads to save a few minutes. At
| dusk. In the midwest.
|
| Clearly no one working on that algorithm has experience driving
| rural roads at dusk and dodging deer!
| shakezula wrote:
| I also feel like Google Maps has become incredibly slow,
| lagging behind my real location by seconds and then "snapping"
| back to where I really every several seconds. It's disorienting
| and Google Maps used to be the one that didn't have that
| problem and all the others did - now that's reversed in my
| experience.
| dougmwne wrote:
| Your feedback is all related to directions, but I have also
| found Google Maps to have an increasingly cluttered and
| unfriendly UI just for browsing and searching maps on mobile.
| Everything seems to be too many taps away and basic use cases
| like looking for the nearest restaurant are quite frustrating.
| Switching to Apple Maps was like the first day of spring.
|
| Google as an overall company seems to have jumped the shark
| some years ago and the slow decline is starting to become
| apparent through many of their products, search included.
| chrischen wrote:
| Apple's voice prompts UX is better than Google. Apple tells you
| when to turn based on the traffic lights, rather than by
| distance, as well as guidance on which lane to stay in. The
| only problem is sometimes it misses lights or stop signs.
|
| For example: turn right at the traffic lights after the next
| one vs "turn right in 500 meters."
| ytpete wrote:
| Google Maps has been showing traffic lights (and stop signs)
| on the route ahead for the last couple months - so I wonder
| if they will be shifting soon to a similar way of indicating
| upcoming turns.
|
| This seems like the kind of thing that's great if the map
| data is extremely accurate, but far _worse_ than the older
| style if there 's any chance of mis-counting lights. Even
| hitting a glitch once (e.g. it says 2 lights when it's really
| 3) could hurt trust in the app's navigation a _lot_.
| ALittleLight wrote:
| Google Maps has a "feature" where it will suggest an alternate
| route if it finds one it thinks will save time. I've found the
| alternate routes don't usually save much, if any time, but they
| also tend to be more work driving - more turns, off the
| interstate, whatever.
|
| The absolutely blood boiling part about it is that Google will
| tell me that it's going to take me on an alternate route,
| unless I press "No" or "Cancel" or something on the phone
| within a few minutes. How am I supposed to get my phone and
| press cancel while driving? I realize some people may have
| their phone / Google Maps integrated with the car, or may use
| their phone while driving, but I don't. For me the phone is
| basically announcing "Hey, I'm gonna annoy you in a few
| minutes, okay?"
| sitharus wrote:
| Apple Maps has the same feature, but it's an opt-in change so
| I just ignore the announcement and it'll keep me on the
| previous route. Plus it's one of the things Siri works well
| for, just saying No will cancel it.
| zamadatix wrote:
| > The absolutely blood boiling part about it is that Google
| will tell me that it's going to take me on an alternate
| route, unless I press "No" or "Cancel" or something on the
| phone within a few minutes. How am I supposed to get my phone
| and press cancel while driving?
|
| Last summer this had my blood boiling. I was part of some
| backed up traffic but I could already see my destination on
| the other side of a river, Google Maps saying ~25 minutes
| away. Suddenly it asks if I want to take an alternate to save
| 2 minutes. I look at the map and it looks like a pretty wild
| path to try to save 2 minutes over so I say no. About a
| minute later it asks again. I say no. This keeps repeating,
| with a different estimate between 1-4 minutes. I keep saying
| no. Finally I don't manage to hit the no button quick enough
| and it assumes I want to save the 2 minutes... so now every
| exit it starts saying "take the exit...". It was at about
| this point I thought to just turn the car volume off until I
| got over the bridge and turn it back on for the rest of the
| directions.
|
| There was just something about how annoying it managed to be
| that set me off about it, it couldn't have been less helpful
| and more of a pain if it tried. Now whenever I hear that
| prompt that memory comes up. That and like you say the damn
| "you're on the fastest route". No shit, you'd go off your
| rocker if I wasn't why bother telling me.
|
| Recently I was going through Chicago and a similar thing
| started happening during a heavy traffic period but this time
| rather than "there is a faster route" it was "stay on blah
| blah for the next <x> miles". Again constantly repeating. I
| got to thinking about it and I came to the conclusion Google
| Maps must have an issue where if you stay relatively still
| and there is any location drift when it snaps you back onto
| the road it considers it the same as if you had just went
| through an intersection and it should update you on what's
| next or going on. In the case of going over the bridge in
| Cincinnati that meant telling me about the ever so slightly
| shorter path I could use. In the case of going through
| Chicago that meant don't take any of the coming splits. Or at
| least that's the best logical reasoning I could come up with,
| either way I just muted my car again.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Had this happen on a recent trip, and the worst part is that
| it changed it's mind and updated the route seconds before an
| exit - which we were already taking. Instead of reverting to
| the old route, it comes up with a 20km detour to get back to
| the (new) route. The best action is to simply stop
| navigation, and start a completely new route. Incredibly
| stressful.
| ALittleLight wrote:
| It's just so shocking and so baffling to me that Google
| could actually release this feature without considering
| that _maybe_ people won 't be able to interact with their
| phone while you know they are driving. I try to give people
| the benefit of the doubt - but this design seems absolutely
| braindead to me.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| It's TERRIBLE on motorcycle and honestly has probably
| killed some people. For context, on motorcycle I'll plan
| out a route beforehand, then I would have Google Maps
| play through earpiece in helmet, phone remains in pocket.
|
| For some years I was using pebble smartwatch which would
| vibrate with the turn notification (and I could glance it
| quickly to verify if I wasn't wearing earpiece or
| couldn't hear it). In all of those described cases I
| can't interact with the phone. At some point Apple or
| Google decided to block the turn notifications from
| pinging over to my watch, so I had to exclusively wear
| earpiece to hear directions.
|
| To tie in with the rest of the thread, Google Maps will
| automatically suggest whatever route it wants and since I
| cannot interact with the phone on this setup, it will
| just go with whatever it wants to do, which often leads
| me onto roads under construction and other potentially
| dangerous routes. No way to turn off this 'feature'.
| protastus wrote:
| That's because Google Maps got massively worse over the years.
|
| I'll add to your list of issues: * distracting
| me while I'm driving with a banner that blocks the bottom half
| of the screen, with a message written in small font, asking if
| a speed trap is still on the freeway. This is distracting and
| unexpected, leading me to take my eyes off the road to get a
| basic understanding of what the app needs, which starts with
| reading the text. Ironically, the font is small due to the
| inclusion of a "reminder" to only interact when it is safe.
| * screen space co-opted by ads, promotions and reviews for
| local businesses.
|
| Google Maps and Gmail are products that rose to the top by
| being best in class. I can only assume that the smart people
| who built the original product, made many wise choices, and
| said "no" when it mattered are long gone. The new blood is not
| of the same caliber, and can only get promoted if they make
| changes. Unfortunately for them, the user experience was
| already excellent when they joined, and thus was difficult to
| improve upon. Seems like they resort to adding details that
| aren't relevant to the user, and trying to monetize things that
| are not core to the product. Every instance of feature creep
| and every dark pattern pulls the experience away from
| optimality, regressing on goals that were achieved 10 years
| ago.
| acka wrote:
| Ads in an app which is being used for navigation _while
| driving_ , are you serious? if so, then Google should be
| taken to court for reckless endangerment. In-app ads
| (tailored for attention grabbing and engagement) and safe
| driving are simply incompatible.
|
| No sane pilot would ever accept ads popping up on the
| controls in an airplane cockpit, so let's keep them away from
| a car's dashboard, too. The fewer distractions the better.
| majormajor wrote:
| I haven't _seen_ ads popping up while navigating, but I
| have been getting what appear to be ads in the direction
| read-outs, e.g. "In 500 feet, turn right at the Wendy's."
|
| Which is, honestly, one of the least-annoying types of ads
| I get on a regular basis. Sometimes it's much easier to
| follow than a street name anyway!
| brassattax wrote:
| Where I live this is the way we give directions (e.g. 2
| blocks past McDonald's take a right), so to me it feels
| more natural than looking for a street name.
| cyral wrote:
| > Sometimes it's much easier to follow than a street name
| anyway!
|
| I think that is entirely the point. Apple Maps added
| something similar around a year ago, where it now says
| "After this light, ___" or "Take the _next_ ____ ", which
| is much easier to understand than giving a street name
| that you have never heard of. It gets you to look at the
| road more than at the map which is a bonus for safety.
| miriam_catira wrote:
| ... at what point I end up saying sh*t, I didn't see a
| Wendy's there, was this the right road? and having to
| interact with the app _again_ to determine if what I just
| did was correct. :/
| protastus wrote:
| I haven't seen ads in navigation mode.
| izzydata wrote:
| I have been using Google maps for years to drive from my place
| to my parents place which takes roughly 7 hours traveling
| across the midwest of the US. It used to take a rather minimal
| number of different highways.
|
| Recently though it decided to take me on an extremely annoying
| new route that has me going through a bunch of tiny seemingly
| abandoned towns with lots of backroads and even unpaved roads
| all to save less than 5 minutes.
|
| Now I have to make absolute sure I select the proper route
| beforehand. But even when I do that it constantly nags me along
| the way that it has determined there is a faster route so I
| need to dismiss it. I can't trust it to not take me on some
| wild back road through a field.
| Twirrim wrote:
| Google Maps fundamentally doesn't understand the difference
| between signposted speed, and practical speed, either.
|
| I was on holiday in the UK a couple of years ago, down in
| south west, and it insisted on sending us down these really
| narrow, single-car-width country roads (with passing places).
| I grew up in the UK, and learned to drive on them, so no
| particular fuss with actually driving down them. The problem
| is they're "National Speed Limit" roads (60mph / 30mph in
| built up areas). They're just too narrow, and too twisty, to
| be able to come even close to it, let alone do it safely.
|
| Unless there has been enough cars using Google Maps going
| down that road, within a recent enough time period so that it
| knows the road is currently slow, it'll send you down it
| assuming you're able to go at something approximating the
| limit. Sod the large road that's just a little bit further
| away and legitimately can be used at those speeds. It got
| almost farcical. I'd even attempt to persuade it otherwise,
| and part way through it would reroute and I'd still end up
| going down one.
| stickfigure wrote:
| Your definition of annoying is not universal. I would happily
| pay a minimal number of _extra_ minutes to get a more
| interesting route. Saving 5 minutes is a bonus.
|
| Wild back road through a field? Yes please, every time.
| ben_w wrote:
| It _literally_ took me through a field when I was looking for
| my B &B at the end of a day of cycling the EuroVelo 15 route.
|
| Not a road though a field, it wanted me to use a muddy
| ploughed footpath in the actual field itself.
| pharmakom wrote:
| I had a very similar experience in France! Do yourself a
| favour and get a dedicated bike GPS and plan the best route
| ahead of your trip. It's much more enjoyable this way!
| habi wrote:
| I heartily recommend cycle.travel for the planning bit.
| slaymaker1907 wrote:
| I use it a lot for cycling/walking/transit and I despise how
| difficult they make it to see what the road names are now. They
| make you zoom in really far just to see what is basic
| information for a map.
| prescriptivist wrote:
| I have a Ford and actually prefer the build-in SYNC maps. The
| SYNC maps will do interesting things like go into split screen
| at various times and visualize the lane I'm supposed to be in.
| It also will show the speed limit on roads I am driving even
| when I don't have a destination setup.
|
| I had used Google Maps + Carplay for years, dismissing the
| built-in navigation, but during a long road trip recently I
| realized just how bright the 8inch screen in my truck is, even
| in dark mode. I switched to the built-in nav and it was
| significantly darker and I realized I could literally see more
| of the road with it than with Carplay because of the lack of
| added ambient light from the screen. After using it for a while
| I realized it's good enough and in some cases even better.
| indecisive_user wrote:
| The biggest anti-feature of google maps by far is the 'Change
| Car Icon' popup when you tap anywhere remotely close to your
| blue nav icon.
|
| Oh, trying to tap to take an alternate route on the map? Want
| to tap to add a gas station stop to your route? Sorry, the
| touch target is too close to your nav icon, but hey at least
| you can cycle through 3 different car styles endlessly. What a
| waste of resources.
| pigeonhole123 wrote:
| I'm sure their engagement metrics are amazing for that
| feature. "Hey, look, Bob used our new feature three times
| last night!"
| mrtksn wrote:
| I also find that the traffic data has become much less
| accurate. Once made me miss a flight because google insisted
| that this alternative route is much faster only to find out
| that it was actually much much worse, then rerouted to the
| original one only to add 40 minutes to the travel time.
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| If 40 min made you miss a flight, you left too late.
| mwint wrote:
| If you don't miss a flight occasionally, you're leaving too
| early ;)
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| And people wonder why I take the train.
|
| At least it's much more of a pleasure here in Europe than
| some other places.
| jimbokun wrote:
| > - ex: taking small side roads to a left turn onto a busy road
| with poor visibility and no light rather than right turns to
| the main road and signaled lefts
|
| Encountered this on my last vacation.
|
| > - ex: I don't need to be told to stay on just because an exit
| ramp has a disappearing lane
|
| I've started to realize getting to some places is actually
| quite simple, but made to seem complicated by the constant
| Google instructions to "use the left 2 lanes to stay on [major
| road]", "use the right three lanes to stay on [major road]".
| Would help to relax if it was just "stay on [major road] for
| next 20 miles" instead of constant false indicators of a turn
| coming up.
| Tyr42 wrote:
| Yes please. Or when I'm driving and there are roundabouts
| where I'm just going straight through. Just tell me my final
| turn, I k is how these roundabouts work.
| pkulak wrote:
| > Would help to relax if it was just "stay on [major road]
| for next 20 miles" instead of constant false indicators of a
| turn coming up.
|
| I hate this so much, and they all do it (I guess not Apple,
| interesting...). I live on the West coast, US, so road trips
| for me are often 100s of miles on I5. But instead of knowing
| that I have 337 miles left on this highway, I instead know
| that it's 3.2 miles until the next time I'll not be exiting
| the freeway.
| potatolicious wrote:
| This feels a bit petty but a huge part of why I use Apple Maps
| over GMaps now is just the performance. GMaps is sluggish and
| can't reliably hit 60Hz even on brand new hardware.
|
| We have space-age CPUs and GPUs in our pockets that are
| basically supercomputers! They are faster than most laptops!
| But somehow Apple Maps scrolls and zooms like butter but Google
| Maps drops frames all over the floor and makes the whole
| experience Powerpoint-like.
|
| It feels like Google Maps has spent the last few years packing
| a kitchen sink's worth of features into itself (much of which
| seems of dubious utility) but at the same time completely lost
| the plot on really basic fundamentals like whether or not their
| renderer can maintain 60Hz on an iPhone 13 Pro, or whether
| their transit overlays continue to generate illegible lines.
| FireBeyond wrote:
| On macOS with a gigabit connection, I consistently get
| map/tile issues in Apple maps that will just not load, even
| if I scroll or zoom. Huge swathes of gray. And then zooming
| in is entirely glitchy (and this is on a 2019 Mac Pro with a
| W5700X GPU).
| chipotle_coyote wrote:
| > Google is taking me on routes that are much less safe and
| more challenging
|
| While I don't know that this is Waze's fault, er, influence, I
| can't help but be suspicious. I was on the Waze bandwagon years
| ago, but soon realized that Waze was increasingly becoming the
| algorithmic version of your Crazy Uncle Bob who always insists
| he "knows a shortcut" that involves going over three barely-
| maintained mountain roads and an unprotected left turn onto a
| six-lane highway.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| > Google tries to send me on wild boondoggles literally all the
| time. It sends me off highway in an attempt to avoid traffic
|
| That's odd, that's my biggest complaint with Apple Maps, and I
| feel Google rarely does it.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Agreed on all points, but especially "Keep straight at the
| intersection.... Now keep straight." It makes me want to drive
| into a lamp post just to silence the voices^W^W unnecessary
| verbiage.
| deanCommie wrote:
| You've obviously never driven with someone from an older
| generation.
|
| My dad when driving on the highway and the road veers in any
| way that is in any way not a BLATANTLY obvious exit: "What do I
| do? Which way do I go?"
|
| Me: "It's fine dad, just keep left. That's the way the main
| highway is heading"
|
| My dad when Google Maps suggests a route that isn't the most
| direct way possible: "Why is it telling me to go this way?
| That's not the fastest route."
|
| Me: "Dad, the app knows about traffic conditions. There's
| probably a good reason why it's suggesting this way"
|
| My dad when he knows that 4 hours a way there is a bridge or a
| tunnel that has incremental conditions: "We should look up to
| see if the bridge is busy so that we can decide now whether in
| 2 hours we will pick a different route"
|
| All these notifications are SUPER important for a certain type
| of driver - an older generation that has trouble with letting
| go of trust, and will insist on giving you directions to their
| house instead of just telling you the address.
|
| And all these notifications can be silenced (If you click on
| the Microphone in the app while in Navigation mode, there are 3
| options - 1/ fully silent, 2/ all notifications, 3/ only
| important notifications)
| klvino wrote:
| My 90+ year old father-in-law still drives and does shortcuts
| in both urban and suburban environments that none of the maps
| programs have caught. None of his driving was remotely
| 'dangerous' either.
|
| Not everyone ages at the same rate or in the same way. If
| only I could be that active at 90. First, have to make it to
| 90.
| ben_w wrote:
| Aye. If I have to age naturally, I'd prefer to be like my
| grandmother than either of my parents. She made it to her
| mid 90s, an extra 15 years of good health in both body and
| mind and got to meet her great-granddaughter.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| ~All our parents grew up without a handheld device giving
| them prompts every twenty seconds. You are being really
| arrogant by thinking an entire generation is less capable
| than anyone on here and "needs" that handholding more than
| "we" do.
| izzydata wrote:
| Not to mention that most older folks can navigate in places
| they are semi-familiar without a need for a device at all.
| Most Gen Z drivers are basically incapable of
| conceptualizing a map of an area in their head and
| completely dependent on a device to tell them where to go.
| ben_w wrote:
| People can change in all kinds of ways.
|
| My mum used to be just fine with reading maps, but one of
| the early symptoms of her Alzheimer's (before any of us
| recognised it as such) was that maps stopped making any
| sense to her.
|
| My dad wrote some kind of software for the Plessy
| (subsequently Marconi) military IFF transponder projects,
| but after retirement it literally took him _years_ to
| realise that the Google search results had a scroll bar
| and it wasn't just three results.
|
| (Unrelated, but are we millennials _really_ going to
| bemoan gen-Z the way people bemoaned us when we were
| their ages?)
| izzydata wrote:
| "are we millennials really going to bemoan gen-Z the way
| people bemoaned us when we were their ages?"
|
| Yes absolutely. It is the circle of life.
| uncomputation wrote:
| > You've obviously never driven with someone from an older
| generation.
|
| Lol dude, your dad is not representative of an entire
| generation.
| elzbardico wrote:
| Man, I have some ancient folks in my family, verging on the
| 80s, and they are not technophobes. On the contrary,
| sometimes they annoy me with their over-trusting of google.
| My uncles trust google maps way more than they trust me.
| microtherion wrote:
| My father in law always turned on the navigation system, to
| then systematically disregard every direction given by the
| system, because he always knew a better way.
|
| Usually took us forever to get to our destination...
| freetime2 wrote:
| > ex: taking small side roads to a left turn onto a busy road
| with poor visibility and no light rather than right turns to
| the main road and signaled lefts
|
| This is the biggest reason I try to avoid using Google Maps for
| navigation. It also tends to send me down narrow residential
| roads where I have to constantly be on the lookout for
| children, pedestrians, cyclists, or people backing out of their
| driveways. Or agricultural roads without a divider line where I
| need to slow down and pull to the shoulder a bit every time I
| pass oncoming traffic. And in the winter time these roads can
| be especially dangerous since they aren't prioritized for snow
| removal.
|
| Most of the time I'd much rather just take an extra 5 minutes
| to get where I am going if it results in a safer and more
| comfortable trip. The built-in GPS in my car does a much better
| job at this (although not without it's own quirks) than both
| Google and Apple maps.
| Ensorceled wrote:
| > * Google is taking me on routes that are much less safe and
| more challenging
|
| But you'll shave 30 seconds off your trip ... unless you miss
| the light, then it was a mistake.
|
| The main problem is that a bunch of these route decisions
| really only make any sense at all if you are a very aggressive
| driver.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > unless you miss the light
|
| I've been running into this constantly. It seems like it has
| no allowance for the average number of seconds spent at a
| light, so it sends me routes cutting through town that end up
| being slower because of all the signals, when it could have
| just sent me up the freeway three more exits.
|
| I've learned to be critical of the route and look before I
| leave.
| stickfigure wrote:
| I'm going to suggest that a lot of this is your personal
| preference, and without more data (which presumably Google has)
| it's not fair to be so critical. Google does periodically ask
| "how did you like your trip?" so they're collecting the
| information.
|
| I personally like the small side roads. I happily take
| alternative routes and saving time is just a bonus. Taking a
| wild guess, I would bet that majority of the population likes
| the alternative routing - either because they like the road
| less traveled or they're impatient and actually care about 3
| minutes.
| gboss wrote:
| I completely agree about the unimportant details. It
| frustratingly cuts up a long stretch of freeway into alerts to
| stay left or right at unimportant exits. This often encourages
| me to be on the wrong side of the highway especially if it's
| telling me to stay left at a small road exit when a mile later
| I need to be in the right lanes for a freeway split. It's
| definitely gotten worse this past year
| gigatexal wrote:
| Google maps is still the best way to find or discover things in
| a city. Find a place to eat, check railings, etc.
|
| Otherwise I really do like Apple Maps.
| farmerstan wrote:
| The best thing about Apple Maps is the "at the next stop sign,
| turn right". That is a wonderful way to navigate!
| dosenbrot wrote:
| I used Apple Maps Navigation a few minutes ago because I was to
| lazy to enter the destination in the car navigation system. And
| so I got really annoyed of Apple since all directions were 200m
| to late. I really like the feature where the phone remembers the
| position of the parked car.
|
| It would be nice if I could send the destination from phone to
| car in a simple way (no route, just the destination), but this
| might only work with really new cars.
| baby wrote:
| Gmaps remembers where you parked your car too.
| allisvancity wrote:
| Apple maps also does this
| bkev wrote:
| Tesla allows you to send an address from the Maps app to your
| car (via the share menu). It's one of my favorite features. I
| have no idea why other manufacturers wouldn't replicate that
| experience.
| pchristensen wrote:
| It took some time for me to adjust - Apple Maps shows your
| position exactly where you are, Google Maps shows your position
| in a few seconds in the future, which gives you more time to
| react. Once you realize the difference, it's much easier to use
| Apple Maps.
| balls187 wrote:
| Was just discussing switching back to Apple Maps with a friend.
|
| I do like Google Map's allows me to group together addresses.
| When I come across some place, I can easily add it to a curated
| list for retrieval later.
|
| Apple maps just lets you add locations, but as far as I am aware,
| I have no way to organize locations.
| joeman1000 wrote:
| You can create a 'guide', which is a list of POIs in Apple
| maps. I've got one for French restaurants near me :)
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Apple Maps is great for "safe" navigation. Over time Google Maps
| have become more Waze-like.
|
| Another great thing about Apple Maps is the haptic signaling on
| the watch.
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