I've been using Apple Maps in the UK for the past year after buying a car with CarPlay. I also used it in hire cars in a couple of other European countries. It's pretty good.

Traffic is accurate, although it is be a little slower to update than Google Maps (it seems to be ~5 mins behind). Directions are spot on and the UI (at least in CarPlay) is clear and detailed. The only thing that's poor compared to Google Maps is the search but it's certainly a decent alternative and it's come a long way since it was first released.

The only thing I dislike about Apple Maps is its screwed up hierarchy of importance. Local trains stations, leisure centres, schools etc seem to be afforded the same level of importance as the local nail bar. It's horribly cluttered.

Apple maps is not usable in eastern Europe not even for short trips, in my quite popular tourist country they're at least 5 years out of date.

I can speculate that outside of Europe its even worse.

"Outside of the US, not even close."

I'm in the UK I use both Apple maps, Google maps, OpenStreetMap and Bing maps regularly (in addition to the built in nav system in my car) and for me the only noticeable strength that Google has is streetview. The "satellite" view in Google Maps where I live is actually so old (12+ years) that it's actually becoming useful for researching historical stuff...

Apple Maps in Singapore is perfect since they added support for public transportation (bus system is a little confusing in Singapore). Now it's so easy to take a bus home when you got lost.

I use apple maps in Sweden. Works flawless. A few years ago it was totally useless.