Is Apple working on Street View for its own Maps?

[sincity]

There were plenty of reasons to get upset when Apple replaced Google Maps with its own, inferior Maps app in iOS, one of them being the Apple service's lack of Street View.

Now Apple might be working to remedy that - "might" being the operative word.

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People in multiple cities, including around the San Francisco Bay Area and in New York, have reported seeing mysterious camera-equipped vehicles being driven around, and the cars are reportedly being operated by Apple.

In other words, Apple might be working to get its own street-level images of major cities for an Apple Maps Street View feature.

There are drivers, though

The Bay Area vehicle's appearance was documented on Claycord.com (the source of the image above), which reports that the minivan was unmarked - unlike Google's imaging cars - and that the driver refused to explain what he was doing.

The site also speculates that the minivan was a self-driving vehicle, though that seems unlikely - Apple doesn't have a license to test driverless vehicles, and there's literally no evidence that the people in these vans aren't pushing the pedals themselves.

However the van is definitely Apple's - 9to5Mac called the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), which confirmed it.

It does seem that Apple is preparing to launch its own Apple Maps Street View feature, even if it only covers major cities when it arrives - maybe in iOS 9?

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