California: Tech company Apple is bringing accident, hazard, and speed check reporting to Apple Maps.
According to The Verge, the novel feature is currently only available to users with the iOS 14.5 beta and is similar to user-reporting features found in Google Maps.
When a person is using the feature, one can press a new Report button in the bottom tray, and select what type of incident or hazard he/she is reporting. One can even do this using Siri. For example, one can report by simply saying, “There’s a speed trap here” or “there’s something on the road.”
MacRumors showed that the interface is available on the CarPlay version of Maps, too.
This user-centric reporting feature is now something that all-the major maps apps either have or have in development. While this feature was popularised with Waze, it’s been available in Google Maps since April of 2019.
Apple is playing catch-up here as it is also trying to add user-generated photos and reviews to Maps.
As reported by The Verge, there is one strange thing to point out with Apple’s version, and it has nothing to do with the fact that the feature is in beta. One may have noticed in the Google Maps screenshot that Apple’s and Google’s icons for accidents and speed traps look very similar.