When Apple first ousted Google Maps from its mobile devices and released its own mapping solution for iOS, it was something of a disaster. A beautiful disaster, at times, but a disaster nonetheless. So much so that Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the company’s terrible Maps app and Apple recommended several third-party alternatives. In the time since Apple’s mobile Maps app debuted, however, the company has devoted tremendous resources to improving it, and now a new report claims that Apple is pushing improvements to its Maps app every single day. As picked up by 9to5Mac, Reddit user “heyyoudvd” noticed recently that Apple is closely watching user-reported errors submitted through its Maps app. In fact, a bit of an investigation from the Redditor has revealed that Apple now sends out updates to correct various errors in its Maps app every single night at midnight Pacific time.
When Apple launched its first-party mapping software alongside iOS 6, users immediately discovered that there were a significant number of issues with the map data. Apple eventually issued an apology and said that the release was not up to the company’s standards. A new Reddit post today seems it point to the fact that Apple is finally ready to start making serious changes to how it corrects Maps data. Ever since the app debuted, it has had an option to report incorrect POI data to Apple. Until recently, however, it seemed that those reports were simply going to an unmonitored inbox to make users feel like they’d done something to help. Just over a week ago, Reddit user “heyyoudvd” noticed that a number of incorrect data points in his area had been corrected—more than had ever been fixed in the previous two years, and many of which he had reported. Now “heyyoudvd” says he’s noticed an even bigger change. According to a new post from the Redditor, the Maps application recently started downloading new, corrected POI data once a week. Now the application checks for this new information every single day. The updates are pushed to iOS devices at 3 AM eastern time (midnight in Cupertino).
