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I love Apple Maps for navigation. Blows google maps out of the water. Clearer instructions. More awareness of lanes. Generally much better UX. However their bu

I love Apple Maps for navigation. Blows google maps out of the water. Clearer instructions. More awareness of lanes. Generally much better UX. However their business search is barely worth using. Frequently out of date. Missing hours. Reviews from yelp which are inferior to googles, and need to leave to app to browse. If they want to make ad revenue it will be on the search side and they have a long way to go.

jeffbee 2y ago
> More awareness of lanes It really makes you wonder if anyone who works on the driving directions of Google Maps has ever used the product. The two most maddening dysfunctions of their driving directions are 1) displaying and holding a waypoint that is unavoidable, such as "merge onto Highway Whatever" when there are no other options, and 2) holding a direction such as "take exit 42" until the very last moment, even when there is a choice to be made immediately afterward, where you really want guidance about whether to bear left or right at a divergence. Combine them both and you get Google Maps repeatedly telling you to do something you can't avoid at the time when it should have been telling you the next turn.
- hnlmorg 2y ago
  Interesting you say that because I’ve found their directions to be generally ok on UK roads. Not perfect but not terrible either. The best satnav I’ve ever had was whatever was built into my VW CC. I think it might have been TomTom-based. I loved pretty much every aspect of that satnav. In fact I loved pretty much every aspect of that car too.
  - jeffbee 2y ago
    I remember well the satnav in my last VW. On the center panel of the instrument cluster it displayed accurate and useful diagrams of the next turn including the streets that you were supposed to pass, with less emphasis. I also recall that its voice prompts were very polite, such as "If possible and safe, make a U turn".
notatoad 2y ago
i'm not sure how far you've tried to drive with apple maps. but from what i can tell, apple maps is better for navigation around NYC and SF. not so much when you get out of the few cities where it's better. even around vancouver, which i would have thought might be a big enough place to get some love from apple, i still get frustrated with apple maps directions. google maps might not have all the shiny bits that apple maps has, but the directions are always right, or at least close enough to right that i'm not mad about it.
- scosman 2y ago
  I’ve used it mostly in Toronto and the Bay. I could see smaller cities being worse, but I’m surprised Vancouver isn’t top tier.
- jmb99 2y ago
  In my experience in every city (literally) in Ontario and lots of south western Quebec, Apple Maps is the clear winner. There are some areas where google is better, but overall Apple wins on navigation. I generally use google for business search, and either Apple or Waze for directions (depending on my familiarity with the area).

jeffbee 2y ago

> More awareness of lanes It really makes you wonder if anyone who works on the driving directions of Google Maps has ever used the product. The two most maddening dysfunctions of their driving directions are 1) displaying and holding a waypoint that is unavoidable, such as "merge onto Highway Whatever" when there are no other options, and 2) holding a direction such as "take exit 42" until the very last moment, even when there is a choice to be made immediately afterward, where you really want guidance about whether to bear left or right at a divergence. Combine them both and you get Google Maps repeatedly telling you to do something you can't avoid at the time when it should have been telling you the next turn.

hnlmorg 2y ago
Interesting you say that because I’ve found their directions to be generally ok on UK roads. Not perfect but not terrible either. The best satnav I’ve ever had was whatever was built into my VW CC. I think it might have been TomTom-based. I loved pretty much every aspect of that satnav. In fact I loved pretty much every aspect of that car too.
- jeffbee 2y ago
  I remember well the satnav in my last VW. On the center panel of the instrument cluster it displayed accurate and useful diagrams of the next turn including the streets that you were supposed to pass, with less emphasis. I also recall that its voice prompts were very polite, such as "If possible and safe, make a U turn".

notatoad 2y ago

i'm not sure how far you've tried to drive with apple maps. but from what i can tell, apple maps is better for navigation around NYC and SF. not so much when you get out of the few cities where it's better. even around vancouver, which i would have thought might be a big enough place to get some love from apple, i still get frustrated with apple maps directions. google maps might not have all the shiny bits that apple maps has, but the directions are always right, or at least close enough to right that i'm not mad about it.

scosman 2y ago
I’ve used it mostly in Toronto and the Bay. I could see smaller cities being worse, but I’m surprised Vancouver isn’t top tier.
jmb99 2y ago
In my experience in every city (literally) in Ontario and lots of south western Quebec, Apple Maps is the clear winner. There are some areas where google is better, but overall Apple wins on navigation. I generally use google for business search, and either Apple or Waze for directions (depending on my familiarity with the area).