The Verge:
Apple appears to be testing a pool of cars near San Francisco that are equipped with powerful camera rigs. A Claycord blog has published photos of a car that CBS affiliate KPIX 5 has confirmed is leased to Apple. The mysterious cars have been spotted a number of times over the past several months in and around San Francisco. A video, published on YouTube in September, also shows a complex camera rig mounted on the roof of a similar Dodge minivan in New York. Both of the cars near San Francisco and New York appear to be equipped with the same LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) camera system.
This is interesting but not hugely surprising. Apple is continuing to make its Map.app and technology behind it better all the time.
I like the idea of competition for Google’s Street View, if that’s what this is.
This is great, but I hope it’s not too little too late. In NYC, most people have written off Apple Maps because of the lack of transit support. They bought two great transit apps back in the Summer of 2013 and they’ve still not been incorporated into the Map.app. Maybe this is a result of their annual release process. Maybe they should be taking more of an agile approach for their app updates.
Some are saying it has nothing to do with maps – way to many cameras pointing down at road, etc. Self-driving cars in the speculation.
Some are saying it has nothing to do with self-driving cars – way to many hidden thrusters pointing down at road, etc. Flying cars in the speculation.
The first of those “some” was apparently Rob Enderle. A good rule of thumb is, if Enderle says it, it’s wrong.
They are not “testing” the cars, they’re USING the cars to move camera arrays around cities. Apple is not buying Tesla and they are not building self driving cars.
can you qualify your claim that “most people” in NYC dont use apple maps? reported stories elsewhere have said Apple Maps has majority use on iOS.
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/11/11/apple-maps-significantly-more-popular-than-all-other-ios-mapping-apps-including-google/
Sure, it’s great if you’re driving. More than 50% of NYC residents travel through public transit. Apple Maps does not have a good solution for public transit. This is purely based on my own experience and of my circle.