It's still inferior to Google Maps tho. It's not outright bad, but for directions/traffic Google Maps is still miles ahead (at least in random European countries).

Shouldn't it be kilometers ahead in random European countries?

I'd say that Google Maps is streets ahead of Apple Maps still. :P

Not in the UK, should the RNG be so disposed.

s/random European countries/everywhere except GB/

Those numbers might be driven by the quality of Apple Maps, or by changes in iOS: it became less intuitive to use 'leading competitors' on the iPhone and iPad. At least I was unable to send my mom's iPhone to Google Maps when she clicks on an address I sent her - I have to send her a Google Maps link.

Of course, it's the default app opened on click that cannot be changed.

This! In iOS you can delete Apple Maps but it then just prompts you to re-download it when an app tries to open a map. It's worse than the old IE default browser.

I never actually open the maps app on my iPhone. I just ask Siri for directions, and I presume she uses the default Apple maps as the base.

I'd suggest that the data is skewed because a lot of people would be doing the same thing. The evolution of the phone UI basically indicates that individual apps are fading as identifiable components. Modern bots and mashup interfaces just pull data from different app/sources and present an amalgamated view. I neither know, nor care whether Siri is pulling her route data from Google or Apple maps, or somewhere else.