Apple Maps thinks the Ferry Building in SF is six miles inland

10 points by alasdair_ ↗ HN
I recently tried to meet a friend at the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero in SF. The address is:

One San Francisco Bay Trail, San Francisco, CA 94111

When I texted that exact string to an iphone user, it turned it into an Apple Maps link. Tapping on the link sent her to a location more than six miles away.

I'd heard Apple maps had some issues but this seems ridiculous. Is this a common occurrence?

10 comments

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Did you report the error? I’ve done this several times and they do eventually fix it.

Not justifying the mess that Apple Maps is just offering a path forward.

Where did you get that address from? Only google maps seems to think that’s the address
Google does think that’s the address but the Ferry Building’s own site uses One Ferry Building.
Ah, so it is a vanity address (at least "One Ferry Building" is a vanity address). Here's an article from back in the 80's about the practice, and the problems they cause: http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/22/realestate/how-builders-in...
Right, but the address is "One Ferry Building" which works fine on Apple Maps. Not "One San Francisco Bay Trail", which only appears on Google Maps. So the problem seems not to be the vanity address per se, but possibly the way that Google has accidentally combined part of the vanity address with the "street" that it thinks the building is on.
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I just looked this up, and with an address like "One", I'd expect it to be at one end "San Francisco Bay Trail". But that road extends quite a bit further in both directions.

I think the problem is because "One" is a vanity address? I know that fire departments have been griping about vanity addresses for as long as I remember (there was a news report about it some 30-odd years ago, that stick in my mind).

The problem actually seems to be that "One San Francisco Bay Trail" is not the address of the building. Only Google Maps shows that address. So, ironically, what the OP thinks is an Apple Maps issue may actually be a Google Maps issue.
I literally just typed in "Ferry Building" on Apple Maps and it took me to the correct location. Also One Ferry Building San Francisco, CA 94111 the correct address listed on their own website took me to the right place.
As others have already said, this is completely incorrect.

I texted this exact string to myself, clicked on it, and it put me at the ferry building. The address in question is a problem in Google Maps, not Apple Maps.