“It’s been a while since we’ve seen Apple’s modified minivans, and that’s because they’re on the move, slowing winding their way into the middle of America,” Damon Lavrinc reports for Jalopnik.
“Jalop reader Sentinelist caught one of the Chrysler minivans in the Dallas suburb of Coppell, Texas outfitted with the same array of hardware as we’ve seen before, including cameras, LIDAR, and wheels sensors,” Lavrinc reports. “When the first photos surfaced the original speculation was Apple was working on something to improve its Maps app, possibly with more granular data and a new take on Google Street View.”
Read more, and se the photos, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: These are mapping vehicles for a feature coming to Apple Maps, a trusted source tells us.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “kewo” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple mystery van spotted in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – February 20, 2015
Video reveals close-up look of Apple’s mystery van project – February 17, 2015
Apple mystery van spotted in San Diego – February 10, 2015
Apple testing mysterious camera-equipped vehicles – February 4, 2015
U.S. patent application reveals Apple is working on ‘Street View’ mapping technology – April 4, 2013
Apple better be careful where they drive those vans in Texas, they might have their vans impounded for patent infringement by some judge there! 😀
Nope. That wacko court is in East Texas. Coppell is in Dallas/Fort Worth. That’s North Texas. We’re not as wacko as the East Texans.
Actually, Apple is strongly against private ownership of guns and is locating and mapping ordinary gun totting Texans to have the Federal Government come around to each home ant forcibly take their guns.
[Citation needed]
You forgot the /s.
(He’s being sarcastic folks)
It does help mind if sarcasm is actually moderately funny.
I drove along side of one of these vans for about a mile in Riverside, California, just last week. Aside from the rig on the roof, the Dodge van was distinctive because its windows were very heavily tinted.
I just saw one today here in Tampa fl.
I saw one on Mars
That answers a lot of questions!😆
Maybe MDN should have a new news feature, ‘Where in the World is the Apple Van?’ 😀
Maybe you should have copyrighted this or trademarked…whatever fits.
Cue Tom Waits : What’s He Doing In There…?
Cue Texan Don Henley ‘Life in the Fast Lane’!!!
-(Oh, I forgot, you aren’t allowed to drive in the fast lane in Texas anymore. It’s now a ‘passing’ lane. Stupid-ass bureaucrats…)
It’s always been the passing lane. It’s the knuckleheads who stay in it that screw things up and make it more dangerous for everyone.
No, it was the fast lane.
“Slower traffic keep right” was the sign I grew up driving with.
Now they will ticket you for just BEING in that lane if you are not passing, even if there is no one around you.
Just one more law to piss everyone off except those who take credit for it (you know, the ones so much smarter than us dumb drivers).
Forget the sensors. If they are sending them to Texas, the should be equipped with patient troll disrupt or beams. A disrupt or beam, for those who do not know, is a weapon from Star Trek so inhuman that it’s only suitable for use against patient trolls.
MDN: just saw your take – spot on.
If Apple could miniaturizes and automate the process and then put the cameras on top of UPS vans, they could have the USA covered in a week. Just saying.
And if they did that the first week of Apple Watch shipping, they would cover all the important streets. 😉
But the burglars would know where the good guys live.
Bing has a pretty good system where they combine multiple angled hi res photos from an aviation vehicle overflight. I know it’s practically tantamount to heresy to praise a Microsoft product on this forum, but you can often get the best shots of a location when combined with the usual satellite data stuff that everyone uses.
Why do they have to be so conspicuous?
Meanwhile, Google managed to miss this van shot before they published it online in Google Maps:
Google Street View breast flasher Karen Davis reported by SA Police for disorderly behaviour
[This wasn’t an April Fools joke].
I really hope Apple Maps gets bicycle directions soon- I hate having to go to Google for it.
So Apple is now goggle. Well, we all knew that was coming. Apple will own all your bases, suckers.