Roughly one year ago, Apple announced a huge change to its Maps app, stating that the company was completely overhauling its fundamental map data. The new data would expand upon what was there, now including buildings, rivers, roads, and vegetation in a vastly more accurate and detailed form.
Apple began rolling out the new mapping data to Northern California just after its announcement, with a promise to continue rolling out new maps to the rest of the U.S. “over the next year.” Southern California and Hawaii followed in late 2018, then parts of the southwest in April 2019.
The updated maps have begun rolling out to Texas, Louisiana, and Southern Mississipi, the more detailed data funneling into the application without the need to download a new iOS update.
As of August 13th, 2019, the new maps have begun rolling out to several areas in the northeastern U.S., including Maine, New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
Since the introduction of Apple Maps in iOS 6, the company has relied on data provided by a host of outside sources that it then combined into one unified map. This helped Apple quickly launch the project, but has often resulted in less-than-stellar detail and made it difficult to quickly make corrections. Apple’s new maps rely on data that Apple has full ownership and control over. It’s vastly more detailed and accurate, and Apple can quickly make adjustments to fix errors and keep the map current.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via Macworld