On our iPhones, the Apple Maps app is an absolute disastrous on Malaysian roads as it lacks point of interests and isn’t quite as smart in navigating around traffic, that is about to change soon as Apple is deploying mapping vehicles in the country to rebuild the maps app, as confirmed via an e-mail to our friends at SoyaCincau.com.
Apple says that the rebuild is being done to work with its Look Around feature, a similar feature to Google’s Street View, and by using its own photography and LiDAR data instead of relying on outside sources, the company promises to provide broader road coverage, better pedestrian data, more precise addresses and more detailed landcover.
If you are worried that you might be captured by one of Apple’s deployment vehicles, the company has promised the protection of your privacy, which elements such as faces, car plates and house numbers should be blurred after it makes these images live.
Apple has even provided a schedule on when its mapping vehicle will be roaming on Malaysian streets and if you must know them, here is a list of them:
- Selangor – 10 November 2023 – 29 February 2024
- Kuala Lumpur – 10 November 2023 – 29 February 2024
- Putrajaya – 1 December 2023 – 9 December 2023
- Negeri Sembilan – 1 March 2024 – 19 March 2024
- Perak – 1 March 2024 – 4 April 2024
- Melaka – 21 March 2024 – 4 April 2024
- Penang – 8 April 2024 – 27 April 2024
- Johor – 10 April 2024 – 6 June 2024
- Kedah – 30 April 2024 – 30 May 2024
- Perlis – 1 June 2024 – 5 June 2024
- Pahang – 11 June 2024 – 24 June 2024
- Terengganu – 27 June 2024 – 8 July 2024
- Kelantan – 16 July 2024 – 22 July 2024
- Sabah – 2 January 2024 – 22 March 2024
- Labuan – 27 March 2024 – 5 April 2024
- Sarawak – 6 April 2024 – 25 July 2024
After these dates, Apple didn’t announce when the new imagery will be updated to Apple Maps, and let’s hope when it completes the update, Apple Maps will finally be as good as Google Maps here.