It’s been three years since the debacle that was the Apple Maps launch, and Apple is still having to play catch-up to Google with its mapping service. However, the company may finally be giving the app the boost it needs in iOS 9, which it’s going to do with the help of Coherent Navigation, the GPS company Apple recently acquired. One such feature that Apple Maps is expected to receive in iOS 9 is public transit information.
Apple has been working to fix Maps in iOS since botching the launch in 2012 with iOS 6. Almost three years and two major iOS upgrades later, Maps might finally get the overhaul it desperately needs. Apple has been busy collecting mapping and transit start-ups over the last couple years, including the recent purchase of GPS company Coherent Navigation, but we haven’t seen those acquisitions at work yet. A new report indicates that the Maps reboot on deck for Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June will finally add transit directions, including trip-planning. So what took so long? Well, according to a Thursday scoop in 9to5Mac, Apple was prepping a Maps overhaul for iOS 8, but pulled the plug prior to last year’s WWDC for a whole mess of reasons. The company reportedly didn’t have enough cities’ transit information ready to go in time, and the data it did have wasn’t completely accurate. Those problems have apparently been fixed. Apple is also working on indoor mapping, but that might not be ready to go in time for iOS 9’s rollout.
