Apple Maps Blamed for Poor Bushfire Response in Australia

The Country Fire Authority of Victoria (CFA), Australia, is blaming Apple Maps inaccurate mapping issues in its FireReady app. Officials are stuck with using Apple Maps for FireReady on iPhones and iPads. A large number of towns including Macedon are located incorrectly, due to inaccuracies in the app. This makes the job of finding the exact location of bushfires very difficult.

To shed some context, there is a Google Maps, but iPhone/iPad Apps that query iOS for geographical location have to use Apple Maps. The alternative may be to use the Google Maps API over the web, but that would require substantial changes in the app.“One of the problems with Apple Maps is that they don’t show the names of cities and townships at all times. This makes it very difficult to quickly determine the exact location of fires once alarm calls are being received. This creates potentially dangerous situations and delays to activate phone trees if required.” Marcel Theunissen of Mt Rael commented.

CFA has lodged several complaints with Apple Australia, but have been told to report the inaccuracies from within the Apple Maps app. CFA officials have asked users of FireReady app, who have installed iOS 6 to disregard the information given by Apple Maps. There are other instance of Apple Maps mishaps like earlier in December, motorists who relied on the app became stranded in a national park in extreme heat.

Tim Cook has already apologized for Apple Maps app, while suggesting consumers to use Mapping apps from other companies like Google, Nokia or Microsoft, but since iOS apps rely on Apple’s data, it is still a priority for the company to get that right. Since the app is available on Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone as well, if there’s a fire, residents may want to ask a neighbor to report the fire on their non-Apple device, just to be safe…

Ubergizmo Team
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Apple Maps, Apps, australia, fire, iPad, iPhone