|
first published week of: 12/12/2016
Apple is hoping drones can help the company compete more effectively against Google Maps, according to a new report.
The tech giant is building a team that will use drones to fly overhead and capture critical street information, including signs and traffic changes, Bloomberg is reporting, citing sources who claim to have knowledge of its plans. Apple has secured approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use drones to capture photos, videos, and other traffic data, the report says.
Drone capture could prove important to Apple AAPL -0.85% as it works to improve its Maps application running on iOS and macOS devices. After capturing the data from streets both in the U.S. and abroad, it can then be transmitted back to Apple’s team and its information uploaded to the Apple Maps servers, according to Bloomberg. Users, then, would get far more useful and recent data. The drones would replace the minivans it currently uses to collect similar data. continued…