ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The MapQuest app now features a surveillance layer.
- You may see the situation of license plate cameras close to you.
- The app reveals cameras from Flock and different corporations.
If you happen to’re involved concerning the rise in Flock license plate monitoring cameras which might be popping up in every single place, one of many oldest names in on-line navigation has a brand new means to assist.
MapQuest — sure, the exact same MapQuest you may need used to print out turn-by-turn instructions a long time in the past –- introduced on Bluesky that it’s added a surveillance layer to the map on its app.
Additionally: 90,000 Flock cameras have quietly gone up within the US: What they observe and the way to examine your metropolis
MapQuest’s app provides turn-by-turn navigation, similar to Google Maps and Apple Maps. However neither of the latter provide data on Flock digicam areas.
How MapQuest’s surveillance layer works
If you flip the layer on (simply faucet the layer icon on the primary navigation display and also you’ll see the toggle), the cameras seem on the map as a small purple eye. A imaginative and prescient cone signifies what course the digicam is dealing with. There isn’t a setting to route you round license-plate studying cameras but, however you possibly can see the place they’re and keep away from them by yourself if you would like.
MapQuest didn’t clarify the way it discovered the situation of those cameras, however I’ve reached out to ask. There are a number of crowdsourced maps on-line (which Flock is actively preventing), although, together with OpenStreetMap, which reveals the place Flock and related license plate studying cameras are positioned. It appears probably that the information MapQuest is utilizing is user-generated, however it does look dependable.
The Waze app does determine “police cameras,” however that additionally consists of pace cameras, in addition to normal site visitors and climate cameras, so it may be laborious to inform that are surveillance cameras.
I’ll admit that I haven’t been too involved about Flock cameras so far, however it was slightly unsettling to see greater than 30 cameras throughout the medium-sized city of 80,000 folks the place I dwell.
MapQuest is on the rise
The once-go-to identify for turn-by-turn instructions is seeing a little bit of a resurgence of late in a world dominated by Google Maps, Waze, and Apple Maps. The app made information in August by saying that it wasn’t altering the identify of Lake Ontario, resulting in a surge in new customers, and by saying Android Auto help shortly after.
Additionally: I examined Google Maps vs. Waze to search out the most effective up to date navigation app – and this one wins
I used to be a devoted Waze person for years earlier than changing to the default choice of Google Maps as of late, but when MapQuest can preserve enhancing, it’d quickly discover itself as a viable various for customers disillusioned with right this moment’s tech panorama.
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