Apple to fly drones to beat Google Maps: Report
Apple plans to fly drones to improve its Maps services.
Apple is reportedly planning to fly drones to improve its Maps services and beat Google’s popular navigator Google Maps.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is assembling a team of robots and data collection experts who will help the company to enhance its Maps services using drones.
The Cupertino, California-based company will fly drones to update information on Maps faster than it is capable of doing via the existing fleet of camera-and-sensor landed minivans.
Apple is said to be developing a new indoor navigation feature for Maps, which will include view inside buildings.
Last year Apple acquired startup indoor.in to push its indoor mapping project to market.
According Bloomberg, on September 2015, Apple filed for an exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones for commercial purposes, and in a response this year, the FAA granted Apple to “operate an unmanned aircraft system to conduct data collection, photography and videography.”