Apple Maps Could Become Useful As Company To Hire 70 Map Experts

Apple Maps has been one of those proprietary apps which a user couldn’t delete even though it was more or less useless.

However, the company seems to be finally getting its act together by opening jobs for more than 70 map tech experts in order to make the app serviceable, CNBC reported Wednesday.

According to the report, the job listings — that went live in July — for the Apple Maps team would require skills connected to mapping elements such as geospatial information services, navigational aids and fleet management.

Read: Apple Adding AR Technology To Maps App? Company Patents Advanced Mapping System For The iPhone

The opening of the new positions indicates that Apple is working on a large-scale improvement of the app.

The report added the new hirings would also help Apple develop two of its new technologies — augmented reality and autonomous technology.

It is imperative for the company to get its act together when it comes to navigation since it has also ventured into self-driving technology.

Since the company has also started developing diverse AR experiences by providing developers with its ARKit, getting its mapping correct has become essential for Apple.

Ever since 2013, when rival Google’s mapping service, Google Maps, made its first appearance in the App Store, Apple users have more or less depended on Google Maps for navigation instead Apple's own mapping service.

Apple’s mapping service has also been involved in many incidents as it provided wrong mapping and directions at the time. In one such instance, it directed drivers in Alaska onto an airport taxiway, risking a major accident.

In 2014, the company had to opt for Google Maps over Apple Maps for its proprietary Find My iPhone app. Later that year, CEO Tim Cook even said in an interview, “We screwed up on Apple Maps.”

Repeated complaints about Apple Maps have surfaced since then, but the company seems to have started working on overhauling the app only recently, prompted by its own development of diverse technologies.

However, indications of an overhaul have emerged over the past years, with the company being granted a patent for augmented reality maps in August last year.

According to the patent, the company would use AR-based maps, which would show a real-time video stream of the environment around a phone using metrics such as geographic position, camera direction and iPhone placement.

This might come handy for users while visiting unexplored locations.

Read: Apple Maps Update: Apple Will Use Drones, Indoor Tracking To Improve App

According to a Bloomberg report from January 2016, the company is also working on utilizing drones and indoor tracking to make its maps more accurate; the report also indicated the company was working on utilizing drones to create a detailed map data, akin to Google Maps.

Whether these features will make an appearance on the company’s upcoming iPhone 8, and the soon to be released iOS 11, is not known yet.