Apple Surveyor lets you improve Apple Maps quality by sharing images of street signs and roadside details
Apple has released a new app called Surveyor for collecting ground truth data such as street signs and roadside details, which helps the company improve Apple Maps.
You can download the Apple Surveyor app from the App Store. The app helps Apple improve Maps by collecting data, such as images of street signs and other roadside details, while on an assigned route, according to the App Store description.
It seems Surveyor is meant for Apple’s partners instead of regular users because it requires the partner app Premise, which you must pick on first run. The Premise app provides users with various tasks that are then available through Surveyor.
Apple Surveyor lets you improve Apple Maps by capturing images along a route while driving
Premise, one of the companies Apple cooperates with on this project, is a task marketplace app that lets you earn rewards by completing tasks like sharing local information, such as construction zones (or the price of milk), taking images of your surroundings, participating in surveys, and so forth.
MacRumors has found code strings in the Surveyor app suggesting that once assigned, you pick a task provided by the Premise app: “Premise users will be instructed to attach an iPhone to a mount, rotate the iPhone to landscape orientation and capture images along a route while driving using the Surveyor app.”
Apple analyzes uploaded images for details, including items along the road such as signs, traffic lights and more. The Apple Maps algorithm takes advantage of this information to “precisely place objects on the map.”
This also helps fix incorrect information that Maps users have reported. In mapping, this is called ground truth data, and it costs a lot of money to keep mapping apps updated. Crowdsourcing some of this data is one way to lower the cost. Apple partners with several third parties that provide relevant data for Apple Maps, ranging from navigation to terrain details, business information, and more. However, Premise is not listed as an Apple Maps provider.
The Apple Surveyor app can be downloaded for free from the App Store. It requires an iPhone with iOS 17.0 or later. The app collects location, diagnostics, and other data not linked to your identity.
Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/03/14/apple-surveyor-app-launches/
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