Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 476 posts

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#371

Post by xenospn »

fjp wrote: post #168
azinman2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Because it started out bad.... 7 years ago?

Anecdotally Apple Maps is still really bad. I have tried using it to drive and walk around major cities in the last two years and it just completely misrepresents where some roads are, it doesn't catch up with construction, etc. etc.

Anecdotally I have been using it for the last 7 years and it's been perfectly fine around multiple US states and dozens of cities. The only glitch I had was driving out of the Dallas airport, but Google Maps had the exact same glitch.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#372

Post by doodlebugging »

tguedes wrote: post #362
doodlebugging wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The teams are mostly 1099 contract workers through a third party with no benefits and no hope of advancement or future employment as full-time employee of Apple since their contract specifically expires in one year. They make around $20/hour usually right out of college in a town (Austin) with one of the fastest growing cost of living due to the influx of all the tech companies who got tired of the California scene a…

Do you have any evidence to back up your assertion?

Evidence of what? The rate of pay? The nature of employment of those doing the grunt work? The cost of living in the Austin area? The reason(s) why tech companies that had their start out of state open facilities in Texas? The general feeling that the first iteration of Apple Maps was substandard to the point where most agree that it sucked?

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#373

Post by kevindong »

doodlebugging wrote: post #218
azinman2 wrote: post #10

Congrats to the teams who did this! It’s been a long time coming.. and a lot of people said along the way that Apple should just give up it was too far behind. Perseverance (and a lot of resources) can go a long way! It reminds me of some advice given to me by a heavily successful industrialist friend — never dismiss your competition, for the world is not static.

The teams are mostly 1099 contract workers through a third party with no benefits and no hope of advancement or future employment as full-time employee of Apple since their contract specifically expires in one year. They make around $20/hour usually right out of college in a town (Austin) with one of the fastest growing cost of living due to the influx of all the tech companies who got tired of the California scene a…

Your phrasing is ambiguous about what those teams actually do.

If it's just a data entry or "look at this picture and type down the name of the restaurant" job, then I'd say $20 is pretty good. If it's actual software engineering then yeah it's pretty terrible pay.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#374

Post by criddell »

airstrike wrote: post #137
criddell wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that Microsoft dominated the market. Apple has a relatively small slice of the smartphone pie. If Google restricted the user in the same way, that would arguably be closer to the Microsoft situation because their marketshare is 2x Apple's.

I think that depends on how you define "market". Globally, sure, but in the US that's not the case https://www.statista.com/statistics/620805/smartphone-sales-...

The market is all the places the devices are sold. So global makes sense. If you define the market as San Francisco then Apple might have a monopoly. But that feels a little like market gerrymandering.

Even if you were going to restrict to just the US, Apple still sells fewer than 50% of the phones.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#375

Post by kevindong »

The street view on Apple Maps (or whatever they call it) is shockingly good in NYC. All of their imagery is super duper recent and in very crisp detail too. They also managed to make it have a genuine 3D effect (by shifting the view slightly without "moving positions", you can see slightly more detail around corners and such).

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#376

Post by Smoosh »

Swizec wrote: post #324
K0SM0S wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd probably end with significantly different results based on country. Somehow the underlying logic of mapping AI seems to be more-or-less of a fit for national road systems — for instance in Europe, with lots of discrepancies between borders, it's really hit or miss: in France and Germany I end up on stupid country roads to save 2 minutes on a 2h drive, but that seldom happens in the Netherlands (granted they hav…

I remember using some car’s built-in GPS once and it wanted me to take every freeway exit and get right back on after. Because it decided that saves time/distance. Maps really need a “not worth it” features for tiny optimizations. I’d often prefer a slightly slower route that’s less work to drive.

Another possible option to make navigation more human-friendly would be "keep route simple" - so minimize the number of turns, complex intersections, road works (even without delays), backstreets etc, even at the cost of a few minutes extra travel time or extra distance.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#377

Post by doodlebugging »

kevindong wrote: post #373
doodlebugging wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The teams are mostly 1099 contract workers through a third party with no benefits and no hope of advancement or future employment as full-time employee of Apple since their contract specifically expires in one year. They make around $20/hour usually right out of college in a town (Austin) with one of the fastest growing cost of living due to the influx of all the tech companies who got tired of the California scene a…

Your phrasing is ambiguous about what those teams actually do. If it's just a data entry or "look at this picture and type down the name of the restaurant" job, then I'd say $20 is pretty good. If it's actual software engineering then yeah it's pretty terrible pay.

It looks ambiguous to me too. Sorry. I should've read it more closely before posting as some of those sentences really get leggy.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#378

Post by cuddlybacon »

acdha wrote: post #342
K0SM0S wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd probably end with significantly different results based on country. Somehow the underlying logic of mapping AI seems to be more-or-less of a fit for national road systems — for instance in Europe, with lots of discrepancies between borders, it's really hit or miss: in France and Germany I end up on stupid country roads to save 2 minutes on a 2h drive, but that seldom happens in the Netherlands (granted they hav…

It’s horrible even in the U.S.: the model seems to assume left turns are cheap so I always get these routes which involve 15 minutes sitting at an unprotected turn across heavy traffic. I, and apparently a number of other people I‘ve heard mention it, have largely stopped using it because the times are wildly off - and that’s along the East coast in some very popular areas, not exactly an obscure edge case.

> the model seems to assume left turns are cheap

Happens to me all the time.

It also seems to assume crossing a bridge at rush hour is cheap. My only guess, and this truly is a guess, it is sees people in the bridge lane stopped and the thru lane moving and takes the average.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#379

Post by leggomylibro »

rodgerd wrote: post #283
mcbutterbunz wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This update may make me switch from Google Maps. The UI in Google Maps has always been confusing and cluttered. There's a search bar, then quick search buttons underneath, then the layers button, "Explore nearby", explore, commute, "For you", and then finally the hamburger menu. Apple Maps is a lot cleaner but the only thing missing was the quality of the actual maps. Hopefully that has changed now.

Google maps used to be fantastic, but in the last year or so it's become so fucking toxic - constantly spamming suggestions and asking questions, even during navigation (in other words, distracting me from driving!). Apple maps may not be quite as good (the lack of cycling in my neck of the woods is annoying) but at least it's not trying to crash my car.

It is really annoying how it auto-switches to routes that it thinks will be faster.

"We've found you a faster route. Switching in 10 seconds if you don't press 'no thanks'..."

Come on, Google, there's a semi truck braking in front of me and I'm trying to make sure it's safe to change lanes, can this wait?

But the "is [reported hazard] still here?" bubbles don't bother me as much, since they go away after a few seconds. I think all of the cues are intended for passengers who are navigating for someone else, but the developers should keep in mind that some people use their phones as a standalone GPS navigator.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#380

Post by [deleted] »

skrause wrote: post #37

What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere. Apple Maps thinks that the road that leads to my house is a one-way street. It's not. But because of this error Apple Maps always wants to send me on a 5 minutes detour if I try to use it to navigate home. I've reported the problem twice but never got an answer or a correction. In fact all problems I've ever reported in…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN