Apple acknowledges Whidbey map errors, promises fix

Published 5:49 pm Thursday, March 5, 2015

After years of complaints, tech giant Apple Inc. acknowledged two major Whidbey Island errors on its mobile map program this week and promised to have at least one of the problems fixed within two months.

Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson broke the good news late Thursday afternoon with a call to The Record, saying she’d been contacted by a company representative and assured the Langley issue was being addressed.

“He said it would be fixed before May 1,” Price Johnson said.

The Whidbey error is also being tackled, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether it would be solved within the same timeframe.

Apple Maps, a navigational program that comes built-in to mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads and laptop computers, currently says Langley and Whidbey Island are both located on Hat Island, a small privately owned isle located in Possession Sound between Everett and South Whidbey. Directions to either destination instruct drivers to take a small passenger-only ferry from an Everett marina to the tiny 1.5-mile-long by half-mile-wide island, also known as Gedney.

It’s unclear exactly how long the errors have existed, but it appears their origins may stretch back to 2012 when Apple stopped using Google Maps for its mobile device Maps program. Several Whidbey residents and one Bainbridge man said they’ve reported the issues to the company dozens of times but with no results.

Repeated requests for comment from Apple’s media department were not returned.

The Record published two stories on the issue in February, one concerning the Langley error, which was picked up by at least one Seattle television news station, and another about the Whidbey error. But it appears it was a letter from the commissioners that finally did the trick.

The board agreed Wednesday to authorize Price Johnson to contact Apple and ask that the inaccuracies be addressed. The rep said the commissioner’s request had been received and that technicians were working to correct the errors.

Many other letters sent from members of the public and other government organizations following The Record’s coverage were likely a major contributor as well, she said.

Whatever the case, the important thing is the problems have finally been acknowledged and are in the process of being addressed, she said.

She noted that the Apple representative pointed out that searches for specific addresses and businesses work fine, that only broad searches for “Langley” and “Whidbey” were inaccurate.