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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday December 03 2016, @11:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-need-to-stop-and-ask-for-directions dept.

Apple has received FAA approval to fly drones to collect data for its mapping service. Apple Maps will also feature interior mapping of certain buildings, such as airports:

Apple Inc. plans to use drones and new indoor navigation features to improve its Maps service and catch longtime leader Google, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Cupertino, California-based company is assembling a team of robotics and data-collection experts that will use drones to capture and update map information faster than its existing fleet of camera-and-sensor ladened minivans, one of the people said.

Apple wants to fly drones around to do things like examine street signs, track changes to roads and monitor if areas are under construction, the person said. The data collected would be sent to Apple teams that rapidly update the Maps app to provide fresh information to users, the person added.

Apple is also developing new features for Maps, including views inside buildings and improvements to car navigation, another person familiar with the efforts said. The people asked not to be identified talking about private projects. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Five years after Google Maps launched on the iPhone, Apple's mapping app was introduced in 2012 with glaring errors like a grocery store marked as a hospital and an incorrect airport address. Apple lacked the technology needed to quickly suck in data from many different sources to evaluate and change the digital maps.

[...] Beyond better data collection, Apple is developing an indoor mapping view that would allow users to navigate airports, and other high-traffic buildings like museums using iPhones, according to another person.

Apple acquired startup Indoor.io last year to help bring its indoor mapping project to market, according to another person familiar with the matter. Apple confirmed the purchase, but declined to say why it did the deal. The company also bought WiFiSlam in 2013, another startup with indoor navigation expertise.


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:09PM (#436506)

    When drones are shot down, and they will be shot down, determine the last known position of the downed drone, and then build a wall around the area, to keep the rednecks inside.

  • (Score: 2) by RedGreen on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:25PM

    by RedGreen (888) on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:25PM (#436509)

    "Apple Maps will also feature interior mapping of certain buildings, such as airports:"

    For the terrorists to do won't even have to scope it out themselves, will no one think of the children...

    --
    "I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @12:42PM (#436514)

      I thought the lazy terrorists were doing DDoS attacks now, and the lazy morons at Dyn still aren't throttling DNS queries because they didn't learn fucking shit from the recent attacks on their servers.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @01:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 03 2016, @01:02PM (#436517)

      OMG! Apple will have interior maps of airports, and Google already has street view inside some places like the white house. Better put the surveillance state into red alert - The terrorists are are coming! The terrorists are coming!

      • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday December 03 2016, @01:46PM

        by art guerrilla (3082) on Saturday December 03 2016, @01:46PM (#436522)

        um, hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but we is all terrorists now, pogo...

        (amazingly enough, it is Empire that is not terrorist in the least ! ! !
        This meme brought to you by Ass Unstein's Keyboard Kommandos)

  • (Score: 2) by Techwolf on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:59PM

    by Techwolf (87) on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:59PM (#436556)

    Apple could take the lead from google if they did one thing, OCR all the signs and add that data to the mapping software. Like NO TRUCKS, LOW CLEARENCE 11.6, and so on. Every truck driver would love a mapping solution derived from that data. Also could read all the street signs and have a more updated map then google.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 03 2016, @06:11PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday December 03 2016, @06:11PM (#436574) Journal

      I'm pretty sure truck drivers already have something like that, but they probably pay a subscription for it.

      Maybe Apple should just buy it.

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      • (Score: 2) by Techwolf on Sunday December 04 2016, @12:47AM

        by Techwolf (87) on Sunday December 04 2016, @12:47AM (#436714)

        There is, but all the drivers I have talked to that has one still does not work better then the freebie online maps. And these units go for $300 to $500 and still come up short.