I don't know why Siri has had a bad user experience, but if there is one company that can do a better job at AI-as-a-product than OpenAI or Google, I think it would be Apple.
In my experience it also has more accurate lane guidance and, as you say, better delivery of audible driving directions ("go through these lights then, at the roundabout, take the first exit"). Google Maps also has an annoying habit of choosing the quickest route at all costs which, in certain parts of the country, involves going miles down single-track country lanes (which legally have a speed limit of 60 but more than 30 would put you through a hedge or into an oncoming tractor) when a dual carriageway A-road would be only 2-3 minutes slower. I can't say Apple Maps doesn't do this, but anecdotally it seems to do it less.
However the business info is still way behind Google, particularly regarding things like temporary closures.
WearOS in general seems to be much more restricted than Android with things like sideloading and restricting third-party stores, but I don't know if there are also things like the Google Play Services system privileges of google-Android proper.
If I search for pizza, both will give me results for restaurants that serve pizza. But if I zoom in on Google Maps, I get other, unrelated restaurants like big chains and a donut shop.
That's not to say Apple Maps is better overall for searching for businesses - they often have incorrect hours, or have closed completely.
Nonetheless, your comment convinces me that I should try Apple Maps more seriously. Maybe I’m missing out.
Not sure if that means I should try Apple Maps again at the 11th hour or not— maybe if it's finally gotten good it would be better to not know and just remain in blissful ignorance.
Google Maps gave me instructions to turn off a junction right at the turn off, resulting in me missing it. Worst still, it did this not once but twice. And the detour was via road works.
Google Maps added a considerable amount of time onto what was already a 3 hour journey.
Thankfully I had planned for problems so there wasn’t any negative outcomes aside time lost and a considerable amount of additional stress when I was already in an emotionally bad place.
On the journey home I used Apple Maps and the difference in the directions were night and day.
Apple Maps gave me ample warning before each junction. It described the junctions (eg “right turn 100 yards after the traffic lights”) so I knew exactly where I was going. Even told me what lane I needed to be in.
Google Maps did do this on occasions to be fair. But it was highly inconsistent. Hence why I got stung so badly when its instructions were last minute. Whereas Apple Maps was 100% reliable 100% of the time.
It will be a long time before I rely on Google Maps for satnav again.
> It will be a long time before I rely on Apple Maps for satnav again.
I assume you mean Google Maps :)
Apple severely dictates and limits what we or any other app can do there as far as UX, while not holding themselves to the same rules.
I ran Android Auto for the first time yesterday and was impressed by how much more “Google” it was.
But even when it had been working, I had started noticing navigation errors started creeping in. It was nice that I hear things like, "at the next McDonald's, turn left" ... but I also get other strange navigational errors. Even just last year, my wife and I hear the directions, and it is having us go in a confused way. I don't trust it as much. (And there is a lot I can say about this using Promise Theory to analyze all of this).
Last night, at a town I do not reside in, I'm making an errand to got to the grocery store, and Google Maps breaks again. So I use Apple Maps. Apple Maps navigation tells me to turn in, and that I am in the parking lot for my destination. I have never heard Google Maps doing that. Another time just last night, it told me that I am crossing this light, and to turn at the next light. I also never heard Google Maps tell me that. Those were literally the kinds of things I would ask my human navigator to tell me in addition to the standard Google Maps navigation (on my wife's phone).
My wife seems to like Google Maps better, so we tried it on a recent trip. I ended up going around in circles in an unfamiliar area, and it kept telling me to turn where no road existed. I was flabbergasted it was so bad, as the last time I used it, I didn't remember it being so unreliable.
- Apple Maps has a different UI (obviously), which I think was the most annoying aspect of the switch
- Google Maps shows the speed limit, and the speed you're going at. Apple Maps just shows the limit. I prefer the google maps version here
- Apple Maps gave instructions like "go through this light, and turn left at the next one" or "turn right after the Starbucks". This is very close to how a human would give instructions, and I like that -- I'm already 'familiar' with it. I find Google's spoken instructions less natural.
I didn't notice anything else very different. Are there killer features that I missed? If not, I'll probably stay with google maps for just because of the UI familiarity.
It has been more than a decade of them kicking the can down the road, so I don't expect Apple to provide a good user experience with Siri any time soon.
An example I ran into was looking for a specific IKEA near Oslo. There are two. The one that's closest to me is a place called Furuset.
Google: https://i.imgur.com/rHu9XOO.png
Apple: https://i.imgur.com/5HaiGny.png
Google has it as the first hit, but Apple doesn't even show it. None of the hits match, they're all either searches (which... what does that mean? If I do a search and one of the hits is "search nearby", why does it want me to another search?) or some kind of IKEA office, not the warehouse.
At the time I didn't know the address, so I couldn't infer the right one from the list. And I was in a car. I tried to zoom in near where I knew it was:
https://i.imgur.com/FrXeyow.png
...But there aren't 10 IKEAs there. Just one.
Apple Maps keeps doing this. I can trust it 95% of the time, but the last 5% is a garbage heap of wrong or missing addresses, or outright wrong directions.
Before you say this is a Norway thing, I've had the same thing elsewhere in Europe, and it once gave me some very wrong turns in New York that put me in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of night.
I was one of the defenders of Maps when it first came out, but every time I try to commit to using it, it fails in some way that drives me back to Google. Google's UX is horrific (when you've searched, selected an address, and asked for directions, why does it take five "X" taps to get back to the main map view?), but it almost never gives me the wrong thing.