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Apple will be adding more details to Apple Maps Brazil. As part of this, the company has deployed vehicles and backpack-carrying workers in order to get more detailed information about the country’s streets. This should allow the Cupertino giant to improve the Look Around feature of the application.
Website Nova Post reported that the iPhone maker started the move this Tuesday. With this, Brazilian users would spot Apple vehicles and surveyors with LiDAR sensor equipment walking around the country, specifically in cities, on streets, neighborhoods, and parks. On its Maps website, the company explains:
Vehicle surveys may use equipment mounted on the outside of vehicles as well as iPhones, iPads, or other devices inside of vehicles. We may periodically revisit and re-collect data in some of those locations in an effort to maintain a high-quality, up-to-date map. Apple is also conducting surveys with portable systems in select pedestrian areas (for example, certain streets in San Francisco that cannot be driven). Some pedestrian surveys use a backpack system to collect data that may be used directly in Apple Maps, such as in the Look Around feature. Other pedestrian surveys use iPads, iPhones or other devices to collect data for map improvement purposes. These pedestrian surveys allow us to improve and update Apple Maps in areas where vehicles simply can’t go while using the same privacy protections as the Apple Maps vehicles.
The effort is expected to help users view more information about the country’s tourist attractions by enabling 360-degree panoramic views. This means users in Brazil will also be able to see landmarks to help them get better orientations when navigating to their destinations.
Yet, as usual, Apple will blur faces, plates, and other sensitive information the survey could capture. As it stresses on its website, despite its goal to improve Maps by including more details, it will still value people’s privacy.
“We are committed to protecting your privacy while conducting these surveys,” Apple explains. “For example, we will censor faces and license plates on images that are published in Look Around. If you have comments or questions about this process, your privacy rights, or would like to request that a face, license plate, or your own house be censored, please contact us.”
In the end, note that while the plan has already started, taking all the details needed to make the Maps improvements in Brazil will take more than a year. It is expected to reach completion by August 2025.
