Live data from Hacker News

Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

forbes.com

11–20 of 247 posts

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#11

I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?

I've been exclusively using Apple Maps for 3 years, never looked back. Spending most of my time in urban-ish areas, it'll not know about some destination maybe once a year. The UX for live directions is great; it'll give you little details like "go past this stop sign and turn at the one right after it" which are really nice. The UI is generally less crowded too.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#12

I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?

I use Apple Maps as my primary GPS in my vehicle. I have spent the last few years on the road driving across North America and Google Maps repeatedly made objectively incorrect decisions in rural areas that would take me in quasi-off road situations. After I got frustrated being led astray I started comparing routes on both and found that it seems to be a logic issue for Google Maps, where it would save 5 km of distance and not recognize the unpaved backroads with tons of twists and turns would add significant time. Apple Maps somehow did recognize this.

I only kept Google Maps installed for info on things along a route or opening hours but since then I’ve deleted it and just use Duck Duck Go to do searches, combined with Apple Maps for GPS.

Edit: one more thing: in the city I am from there has been a lot of development. Google is missing a ton of roads in near areas where Apple Maps is not.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#14

I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?

I use Apple Maps when I use maps and haven’t had any issue.

However I generally don’t use any turn by turn instructions until I’m close to a place I haven’t been before.

Haven’t used Google maps since my very first smartphone (probably late 2011) kept trying to send me the wrong way down one way streets in Atlanta.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#15

I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?

It's mostly fine. But I can't trust it to be up-to-date for business locations and opening hours. Some places (even high-traffic places like McDonalds) are missing, some closed places haven't been removed after months (years?), and opening hours are just as broken. I'll always double check with a Google search. It's been fine for public transport and driving navigation.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#16

I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?

I use Apple Maps in Shanghai. It's very fast, accurate and shows bicycle/scooter lanes, indoor maps for malls etc. very well.

Google Maps even with VPN (to bypass the censorship) is nearly unusable here by modern map software standards.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#17

I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?

Apple Maps is quite good if you use it one of the major US cities… but it’s still weak in most other places. As a European customer, Google maps have more up to date information, better traffic data, public construction information etc.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#18
Google maps >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> apple maps here in Europe especially for medium sized cities (in big cities apple works fine but still a lot worse then google).

For me it seems like fair exchange to give some data, for free and very good service that have no real competition :)

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

#20

What a tight rope this author has to walk. You want commute suggestions but you don’t want google to know where you live or work? I’ll bat for google on this one, the value I get from Gmaps vs the value they get from my data seems like a fair exchange. Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact.

But the point is that Apple Maps also has the commute suggestions without the privacy cost
Post reply on HN