I can confirm this: cell phone location traces are one of the more valuable signals we use. If a lot of cell phones on a particular stretch of road are moving slowly west, but rapidly east, it indicates a traffic jam on the westbound side; if there are almost NO cell phones on a particular stretch of road that normally has lots of them, it indicates a road closure; etc.
Cell phone location traces are also used to convert addresses to locations. For example, an indoor shopping mall typically has one street address, but lots of entrances, some of which are loading docks. Fortunately, loading docks and public entrances have very different cell phone location signatures, so we can tell which is which.
Cell phone location traces can also tell us that there's something new on the map that wasn't there last month -- a new housing development, a new road, a new business, etc. -- prompting further investigation, e.g. a StreetView vehicle going there to get photographs. The photographs can then be automatically analyzed to determine (in conjunction with cell phone data and volunteer user contributions) what the new thing is.
All of which is one of the reasons Google developed its own phone operating system. I can only assume Apple Maps is doing the same things with iPhone location data.
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Cell phone location traces are also used to convert addresses to locations. For example, an indoor shopping mall typically has one street address, but lots of entrances, some of which are loading docks. Fortunately, loading docks and public entrances have very different cell phone location signatures, so we can tell which is which.
Cell phone location traces can also tell us that there's something new on the map that wasn't there last month -- a new housing development, a new road, a new business, etc. -- prompting further investigation, e.g. a StreetView vehicle going there to get photographs. The photographs can then be automatically analyzed to determine (in conjunction with cell phone data and volunteer user contributions) what the new thing is.
All of which is one of the reasons Google developed its own phone operating system. I can only assume Apple Maps is doing the same things with iPhone location data.