Apple for the day: drones

Money has an article by Kerry Close about drones:

In order to keep up with Google, Apple is turning to drones. The drones would collect data to give users real-time traffic updates. The tech giant plans to fly the unmanned vehicles in an effort to improve its Maps app and keep up with Google‘s industry-leading product, Bloomberg reported. The drones will be able to collect and update maps information faster than Apple’s current fleet of minivans with cameras and sensors.
The company is in the process of creating a team of robotics and data collection gurus to operate the drones and analyze the data they return. Apple is hoping the drones will be able to examine street signs, track road changes, report areas are under construction, and send the information back to teams who would quickly update the iPhone’s Maps app to provide users with real-time updates.
Apple is reportedly also working on new Maps features, including views inside buildings and improvements to car navigation. The iPhone’s Maps app was released in 2012, five years after Google’s, and with glaring errors, like a grocery store marked as a hospital. At the time, Apple didn’t have the technology it needed to quickly collect data from many sources.
Since then, the Maps app has improved, with more quickly updated data, an added mode for navigating public transit, and opening the feature to outside services like Uber and the restaurant reservation app OpenTable.

Rico says his friend Mike is a drone pilot, and Rico uses the Map app nearly every day.