Apple to Add Grade Crossings to Maps After Federal Recommendation. Apple will add grade crossings to Apple Maps after a safety recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Reports The New York Times. The recommendation comes after a two-year investigation into an accident that occurred after a driver got his truck stuck on railroad tracks while following directions from Google Maps.
Grade crossings, or level crossings, are defined as intersections where a rail line meets a roadway, and have become increasingly dangerous areas thanks in part to the rise of digital mapping services. The case the NTSB cites in its recommendation is that of Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, who misinterpreted directions from Google Maps and wound up on a poorly marked grade crossing. His truck, which was hauling a trailer, got stuck on the tracks. While Sanchez-Ramirez was able to abandon his vehicle, a train struck it and resulted in the death of an engineer and injuries to 32 others. There were more than 200 fatalities at grade crossings last year in the U.S.
At the time, Google's mapping application did not incorporate grade crossing data, according to NTSB findings. The federal safety agency argues that had Google Maps included such information, and perhaps a warning, Sanchez-Ramirez would have been less likely to mistakenly turn onto the tracks.
Today, the NTSB issued a safety recommendation that Google and other map providers, like Apple, Should add exact locations of more than 200,000-grade crossings to their mapping data. The Federal Railroad Administration has been lobbying Apple and other tech companies to add the data for the past 18 months.
Along with Apple and Google, the NTSB is calling on Garmin, HERE, TomTom, INRIX, MapQuest, Microsoft Corporation, Omnitracs, OpenStreetMap US, Sensys Networks, StreetLight Data, Teletrac, and United Parcel Service of America to integrate the grade crossing and other rail data into their respective digital services.
Source: MacRoumors
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