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Comment by littlestymaar | Hacker News Reader

I still don't understand why Apple map is so bad compared to OpenStreetMap given that they contribute a lot to it (they are even the biggest company contributor to OSM). There must be a reason, legal or something, but why don't they just use OSM as a default for places they didn't map by themselves?

[1]: https://www.gislounge.com/openstreetmap-one-of-the-worlds-la...

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I suspect they want to review and check every inch of OSM in an area before they import it.

Just incase someone has hidden something extremely offensive within the dataset, and deliberately mutilated the maps to create funny images etc

Google had a few very public cases of people using their open contribution process to embed images of Android, penises and hate symbols into their maps. All this created a huge about of negative PR, and eventually resulted in the contributions system being shutdown.

Maybe that's the reason. It sounds a bit extreme but given the control culture of the company that would make sense.

> All this created a huge about of negative PR

Probably not that huge though, given I've never heard of it before :).

I had, so given the sample we can confidently say 50% of people had heard of it.

Oh and I suppose OP, so 66%.

It all happened a while ago. Google shut down the Map Maker program four years ago.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/google-temporarily-s...

> I suspect they want to review and check every inch of OSM in an area before they import it.

Facebook does the same with OpenStreetMap data. With a combination of automated tools and team of manual reviewers they were months behind with updates to allow error detection.

"Some of these contributions may have intentional and unintentional edits that are incompatible with our use cases. Our mapping teams work to scrub these contributions for consistency and quality. In the course of this work, we also build additional tools and technologies on top of OSM to increase mapping speed, and more importantly, drive a higher level of detail, quality and accuracy on the map." https://daylightmap.org/

Neither Apple nor Google check to ensure that roads actually exist. Both have imported USGS maps that include non-public roads which are gated shut to the public.

Example: 37.475,-121.753

Both Google Maps and Apple Maps will cheerfully give you directions to this location which is less than 15 miles from their respective headquarters. You can't get there.

Apple is still in the process of creating and rolling out their own map data.

In areas where they haven't converted to their own data, they still rely on map data from others, like TomTom and OSM.

I think it might be because Apple will have to give visible attribution to OpenStreetMaps, which may attract users towards it to the detriment of Apple maps.

But why do they contribute then?!

They do use OpenStreetMaps data and give attribution to them as one of their sources. But if they were to only use OSM's data, people would cry foul that Apple maps is not giving them clear and visible attribution (for e.g. by adding a "OpenStreetMap" label on the map you are viewing in Apple Maps). Right now, except for maps source providers that legally require Apple to provide visible attribution somewhere in their UI, all attributions are tucked away somewhere in the internet - https://gspe21-ssl.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-199.html

OpenStreetMaps attribution is visible in the UI; look at the bottom of the screen when you're selecting the mapping overlay.

When I go to choose which map type I'd like in Apple Maps, right there at the bottom, just below TomTom's logo:

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