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Comment by chupchap | Hacker News Reader

It's Apple Maps bad!

Apple Maps is actually great now.

Going from Apple Maps to Google Maps is now like going from ublock origin to a stock browser. Crap everywhere that you didn't ask for, slowing you down as you try to locate what you're actually trying to find.

Meanwhile the maps/data quality is quite good, probably 95% there for the things I care about. I've been able to use it full-time for years now.

This might be true in the US but it's close to worthless in a lot of the rest of the world.

It's true in most rich countries at this point. Apple's been steadily launching more of their capabilities in new countries. I just used Apple Maps across eight countries in Europe. I did send a few problem reports, but they're better than Google now everywhere I went.

At this point if I lived somewhere they weren't great, I'd submit improvements for all the places I went

In asia it is still unusable. I have to re-download Google Maps (I abhor using Google products) every time I travel to that part of the world.

My experience too. Here in Bangkok I never bother to even open it anymore.

I've found it to be excellent in Japan. Like I said... rich countries.

Just checked my commute to work on the west coast. It found 1 of 3 public transit options, doesn't know that my company has an office at that location (public info), and doesn't list the cost. I also just finished a driving trip through Central Europe with an apple map user, where it got stuck in construction Google knew about (+1h), didn't have good traffic info at other times, and also chose the most boring route. The trip improved once we switched to routing with Google.

Apple maps is adequate now, but as a map power-user it's been pretty far from great every time I've tried it. I'm happy they finally managed to get an accurate basemap though.

It’s pretty much equal to Google maps in Australia. It’s mostly lacking in reviews.

Depends on your region. It is fantastic in Cupertino. It is literally unusable in Japan or Taiwan. Literally--it will fail to get directions or even find your destination (typing in English or the local language).

Really? I’ve had it work very well in Japan for me. Taiwan I’ve never tried.

Half the time when I input a destination (kanji or romanji) it fails to find what I’m looking for. Google Maps never fails.

I find the search pretty poor on Apple Maps, but I’ve traveled the world using only Apple Maps and I’ve gotten around fine in quite remote areas.

The only reason I ever use google maps is to search somewhere and copy paste the address into Apple Maps.

Can’t speak towards Japan or Taiwan specifically but it’s been fine in extremely rural Africa, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Bosnia, Australia, etc. Much better than Google Maps in most of Western Europe and America these days.

Works pretty well in Australia but it didn’t use to. As an aside, last time I was in Japan google maps had some issues too, and people recommended other map apps

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