Archived version: https://archive.ph/hguLn
Excerpt (and context):
Apple Maps’ offering might surprise people who remember its disastrous launch in 2012, which the Guardian described as the company’s “first significant failure in years”. Users were more than furious – they were lost, sometimes dangerously so. In Australia, police had to rescue tourists from the huge Murray-Sunset national park, after Maps placed the city of Mildura in the wrong place by more than 40 miles. Some of the motorists located by police had been stranded for 24 hours without food or water. In Ireland, ministers had to complain directly to Apple after a cafe and gardens called “Airfield” was designated by the service as an actual airport.
But mostly the map was just glitchy and unhelpful, its directions always a little off kilter. Users revolted and Apple made a rare retreat, allowing Google Maps to be used as the default on many iPhone apps and apologizing for the product.
I’m an android user and Apple maps has become a real problem numerous times in the past for me. My daily work involves me and multiple people traveling from one place to another and meeting at odd places (event production). And people using Apple maps can go from something simple as them not being able to find a destination in a search to being sent to the wrong location way far away, tricked into going down over way streets, and the most annoying, directed straight into bumper to bumper traffic. Ugh, everyone learns the first time but still…