Apple has officially confirmed that it is overhauling its Street View-style service. The company is going to place a fleet of camera-studded vehicles on the streets of Ireland, US and UK to collect accurate data. It was in February, when a car chartered to Apple, equipped with cameras and scanning tools was spotted in San Francisco.
The Cupertino giant has also opened a page on its website, which lists out a tentative schedule (from 9th June – 30th June) for the car to be heading to the aforementioned locations. The page on the company’s website reads, “Apple is driving vehicles around the world to collect data which will be used to improve Apple Maps. Some of this data will be published in future Apple Maps updates.”
Well, all this seems like a strategy to rival Google’s Street View service, as the website also says, “We are committed to protecting your privacy while collecting this data. For example, we will blur faces and license plates on collected images prior to publication,” which in turn means that Apple will be taking care of users’ privacy and will be taking actual photographs rather than just collecting the road data (pun intended? We think so).
The mapping service by Apple was slammed by critics in the year 2012, accusing the service for wrong information, messed up train stations and misplaced landmarks. The camera-studded vehicles, as per the schedule, will be traveling to Cork and Dublin in Ireland, and Birmingham and London in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the vehicles will be moving around in Dallas, Detroit, New York and Los Angeles.
During the WWDC 2015, the company also announced about new features coming to the iOS 9, which includes the addition of public transit directions to the map. Although that data will only be accessible to few cities in the West.
Filed in . Read more about Apple Maps and Street View. Source: theguardian