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> Is the data a lot more precise? Perhaps in Apple's own backyard. In the Netherlands it's laughably bad. Cycle tracks? Mostly missing (in a country that has a
by Freak_NL 7y ago
> Is the data a lot more precise?
Perhaps in Apple's own backyard. In the Netherlands it's laughably bad. Cycle tracks? Mostly missing (in a country that has a huge cycling infrastructure). The map doesn't even have building outlines.
Google Maps is slightly better, but mostly because of the more extensive mapping of points-of-interest; because business owners add their own information with an almost religious zeal.
Bing interestingly enough uses OpenStreetMap (and properly attributes its usage) to gain access to the municipally contributed building outlines OpenStreetMap can use due to its permissive licence. The roads are their own though, and they are quite inaccurate at the lower end of the road hierarchy.
OpenStreetMap is probably the most complete map here in the Netherlands (disclaimer: I contribute to OpenStreetMap).
DuckDuckGo using Apple Maps instead of OpenStreetMap is a really weird choice for many countries, but perhaps it works better in the US?
- danieldk 7y agoPerhaps in Apple's own backyard. In the Netherlands it's laughably bad. Cycle tracks? Mostly missing (in a country that has a huge cycling infrastructure). The map doesn't even have building outlines. Apple uses Tom Tom data. We never had serious problems with car navigation in Germany where we lived before and in The Netherlands. Bike navigation is indeed bad, but it is also bad with Google Maps once you cycle in nature (outside cities). Then nothing beats a good Garmin GPS with paid maps (e.g. Topo Germany Pro and Topo Benelux), which do not only contain smaller cycling roads, unpaved roads, etc. but typically also contain paths recommended by national cycling associations (ActiveRouting). Unfortunately, it seems they are not updating maps frequently anymore, I guess it's a small market. I hope that OpenStreetMap continues to pick up the slack.
- inferiorhuman 7y agoApple uses Tom Tom data. We never had serious problems with car navigation in Germany where we lived before and in The Netherlands. The car navigation in Germany was fine with Apple Maps for me (although I only used it for one trip), but the public transit info was mostly missing.
- saagarjha 7y agoApple uses a variety of providers in addition to TomTom, which they list here: https://gspe21-ssl.ls.apple.com/html/attribution.html https://gspe21-ssl.ls.apple.com/html/attribution.html
- robin_reala 7y agoData is just frequently different between different mapping services. I was in Seoul recently and Google maps refused to do walking directions. Apple maps did walking directions just fine, but refused to do public transport routing. In the end I just had to swap between them throughout the day.