News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by zbrozek on Monday August 07, 2023 @01:04AM (#37030367)
My wife and I prefer navigating with Apple maps after Google Maps stagnated for years and years. Apple's voice instructions are incomparably better.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by qup on Monday August 07, 2023 @01:40AM (#37030574)
Apple maps is the only mapping software that's taken me to the wrong place, and it's done it several times. It also tried to put me into a permanent loop once, in Branson. Luckily it was a very small loop, or I might not have noticed, being a tourist.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by gorbypark on Monday August 07, 2023 @03:50AM (#37031545)
One time on a very long road trip across Canada, Apple Maps decided to route me two hours north of the main highway on a smaller (but paved) highway, and then across a 200km long gravel backroad, back to the main highway. I had been driving for about 10 hours at the point and didn't really notice until it told me to turn onto the gravel road. It's pretty much the only time I was afraid I'd be stranded in the middle of nowhere, since I was on about a quarter tank of gas at that point and out of cell service, so I was unsure if going back to the main highway or across the backroad would be closer to a gas station.

In the end I took the backroad and ended up just making it after driving on the "empty tank" light for about 80km (which is surprising how long it lasted!). My fault for zoning out and blindly trusting GPS!

Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by reportgunner on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:24AM (#37032993)
Apple maps always load slow for me in mobile browser, I give up waiting for the map image to load every time.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by duped on Monday August 07, 2023 @01:36AM (#37030548)
The 3D view is a hilariously bad anti feature imo. Like the demo screenshot showing the Golden Gate Bridge and obscuring the actual road on the map is kind of funny.

I also hate not being able to keep north fixed on the screen unless I'm in CarPlay. That just doesn't make sense.

Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by rconti on Monday August 07, 2023 @02:21AM (#37030867)
I generally like the 3d view, but I had a hilarious experience up in Marin where I was cresting a hill and planning to take an exit, with a turn I didn't know coming right after the exit.

The entirety of the next 3 steps, precisely what I cared about the most, was totally obscured by the hill in the 3d view.

The exact same hill I was seeing out my windshield. The hill in my windshield was the reason I was glancing at my mapping app for further guidance. facepalm

Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by rr808 on Monday August 07, 2023 @06:44AM (#37032711)
Wow you get that in CarPlay? In Android Auto there is no North, I hate it.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by afavour on Monday August 07, 2023 @01:25AM (#37030479)
I want to like Apple Maps but their reliance upon Yelp for useful information infuriates me.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by Gigachad on Monday August 07, 2023 @03:19AM (#37031307)
Reviews and user submitted content are an absolute nightmare. I can’t imagine how much of a legal headache it is for google.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by seb1204 on Monday August 07, 2023 @08:06AM (#37033305)
Is this legal issue for Google? I think it is as many of the under maintain or moderated points of engagement just a service desert.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by astrange on Monday August 07, 2023 @04:37AM (#37031902)
That extremely depends on your location - notice there's another thread above you complaining it doesn't use Yelp anymore.

eg the US and Australia now have built-in reviews.

Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by fauigerzigerk on Monday August 07, 2023 @04:06AM (#37031662)
I often find Apple Maps navigation frustrating. For instance, they don't show which platform a train is leaving from (in London). Knowing that there is a train leaving in 3 minutes somewhere on 15 platform train station isn't helpful.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by notantigoogle on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @04:19AM (#37046030)
what alternate reality is this? Google Maps has never stagnated ever. Tons of new features have been added every year since it was first created. Go read the maps blog posts, watch the google i/o videos, or just search for it and you'll see 10s of thousands of articles listing the new features from each year.
Re:Google Maps has become an eyesore by zbrozek on Friday August 11, 2023 @05:42PM (#37094409)
It's our lived reality, not the SWE-centric reality. We don't really want new features, we want the existing features to work better. The voice output on Google Maps is simply bad. It calls out turns when there are other available turns before the one you're supposed to take, and doesn't say anything to disambiguate. It draws which lane to be in for your exit but doesn't call it out. It doesn't say what you need to know for compound instructions (e.g., exit followed closely by fork). You must look at the map to be able to follow the instructions. Apple Maps does these things better and that's why we prefer to use it (with screen mirroring to the car).

And yes, we even like the 3D view. It helps provide context faster than the 2D view, even if it doesn't always render the best information. Every product has room for improvement, and Apple Maps has been improving. Google Maps isn't usefully better now than it was in 2015.