Apple Hiring ‘Ground Truth’ Managers To Improve Maps

If job listings are any indication, Apple remains committed to improving its iOS Maps app. As the iDownload Blog spotted, Apple currently has seven job listings for what’s called a “Maps Ground Truth Manager.” The positions are based around the world — U.S., Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Middle East/Africa. The […]

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apple-maps-squareIf job listings are any indication, Apple remains committed to improving its iOS Maps app.

As the iDownload Blog spotted, Apple currently has seven job listings for what’s called a “Maps Ground Truth Manager.” The positions are based around the world — U.S., Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Middle East/Africa.

The job description explains that these Ground Truth Managers will be responsible for improving and ensuring the accuracy of Apple Maps.

The Maps team is searching for a manager for the team responsible for regional map quality and ground truth in the U.S.. Each of our regional teams is responsible for the quality of our maps in their region. This team’s responsibilities include:

  • Testing new releases of map code and data around the U.S.
  • Collecting ground truth data to allow for analysis of the impact of potential map code or data changes relative to known truth
  • Utilizing local expertise to provide feedback about U.S.-specific mapping details
  • Evaluating competing products in-region relative to our maps

 

The job listings not only reflect Apple Maps’ early problems, but also underscore how right Google’s Eric Schmidt was last year when he said that Apple is learning that “maps are really hard.”

Google has been working on maps for years, and relies heavily today on “feet on the ground” products like Google Street View and Map Maker to improve its mapping accuracy. To give you an idea of how far ahead Google is, consider that those two products launched in 2007 and 2008, respectively. And 5-6 years is a long time in internet/tech development.

Last year, when Apple was prepping its own Maps app for public release, Google went on a sort of dog-and-pony show talking about how tough mapping is and how it tries to overcome the challenges. In an article by The Atlantic, there was this description of Google’s human, hands-on approach to mapping:

The sheer amount of human effort that goes into Google’s maps is just mind-boggling. Every road that you see slightly askew in the top image has been hand-massaged by a human. The most telling moment for me came when we looked at couple of the several thousand user reports of problems with Google Maps that come in every day. The Geo team tries to address the majority of fixable problems within minutes.

If it didn’t realize this already, Apple appears to have gotten the message about feet-on-the-ground mapping.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Matt McGee
Contributor
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

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