Six months before Saab the car company went under the last time, Apple, in complete secrecy, bought a futuristic mapping spinoff from Saab the defense contractor. The secret is now out and maps on mobile devices will never be the same.
The company was acquired in July 2011 by an unnamed “Western company”, which turned out to be Apple, who have relied on Google Maps to power mapping software in iOS devices since the iPhone’s debut in 2007. Back then, the two companies operated in very different realms, but after Google released the Android operating system for mobile devices, they became direct competitors. If all goes according to rumor,all this sci-fi mapping will become part of the next version of a Google Maps-less iOS.
-Jalopnik.com
If these 3d renderings are just around the corner then they will absolutely blow away the current mapping technology that most consumers subscribe to. These are 360 degree maps that are more like CAD images than depictions of flat terrain. And they are accurate to within 6 centimeters of true spatial representation.