Huh - Apple has been accumulating its own map data since 2014

[pdq]

Up til now, it has licensed others' data (like TomTom's, the article says). But it's ready to roll out it's own data now.

This might explain two things: why people found Apple maps to uncharacteristically suck, initially, and what these were all about:



Yeah, as it turned out, Apple was actually working on a self-driving car, but apparently the above wasn't part of that. Go figure.

[macphanatic]

Yup. I've seen several Apple vehicles driving around the east coast. Figured that they were collecting their own data.

[MacArtist]

I just saw an Apple Maps vehicle in Ft Dodge, IA driving around that town.