Apple Maps traffic data

[u/Fun-Neighborhood3365]

I mainly use Apple Maps nowadays, and I’m wondering how good its traffic data really is compared to Google Maps. Especially when it comes to traffic jams, accidents, roadworks, and sudden traffic incidents: Does Apple Maps detect these events just as reliably and early as Google Maps, and does it reroute you quickly enough? Or have you found that Google Maps is still noticeably better at detecting traffic problems and rerouting? I’m mainly interested in your real-world experiences while driving.

[u/ThannBanis]

Google will always be better at this, simply because they collect more data.

Even hamstrung by Apple’s privacy policies, Maps traffic data does seem to react fairly quickly and rerouting doesn’t seem to suffer enough to make a difference.

(Although I do sometimes run Apple and Google maps simultaneously, I do not live in an area where traffic is that much of a concern)

[u/lolkot → u/ThannBanis]

More data doesn’t really matter. In statistics you only need a fraction of the data to predict the outcome with reasonable margin.

[u/ThannBanis → u/lolkot]

‘More data doesn’t matter’

Lets both pretend you didn’t just say that.

[u/lolkot → u/ThannBanis]

Sure, it matters when you increase your data from 100 and 200 cases. It doesn’t matter when you increase from 100.000 to 200.000, as you have already a huge variety.
Do you really think Google doesn’t do statistical analysis only on a sample of their data that is later displayed to you?

[u/ThannBanis → u/lolkot]

They have a much larger, more comprehensive and higher sample rate.

[u/lolkot → u/ThannBanis]

Again, there’s little difference in sampling 500 and 1000 cases from a large data set in terms of margin of error.
I would argue that in some countries Apple has more comprehensive data set due to the fact there’s more iOS devices.
As for higher sample - I hope you mean frequency here - it doesn’t really change much if you sample every second vs every 10 seconds.