MapQuest is continuing its push to become the official map and navigation platform of the resistance. After promising not to comply with the Trump administration’s “Lake America” gimmick, the platform announced a new “Surveillance Layer” that displays the locations of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), including those from Flock Safety.
Per MapQuest, its new tool will identify the locations of known outdoor surveillance cameras and plate readers from Motorola Solutions (Vigilant), Genetec, Axis Communications, Axon, Leonardo (ELSAG), Neology, Rekor, PlateSmart, Ubicquia, Verkada, and others. While the company didn’t specify how it sources its data, it appears to be similar to the data amassed by DeFlock, which maintains a user-submitted map of ALPR camera locations. MapQuest may be sourcing the information from DeFlock and the OpenStreetMap project. Gizmodo has reached out to MapQuest for additional information and will update when we hear back.
The Surveillance Layer is available in the MapQuest app and can be activated with a toggle, the same approach the app uses to turn on overlays for traffic and reported road incidents.
The Roads Have Eyes! 👁️Turn on the Surveillance Layer in Map Options to see known license plate readers from Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions (Vigilant), Genetec, Axis Communications, Axon, Leonardo (ELSAG), Neology, Rekor, PlateSmart, Ubicquia, Verkada, and other outdoor surveillance cameras.
MapQuest’s app has gotten shockingly popular over the last few months, despite otherwise being left for dead as a relic of the Web 1.0 era. The company started to get a lot of buzz when it refused to go along with the Trump administration’s decision to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” That decision was in stark contrast to the dominant map app makers at Google and Apple, who basically suggested it was out of their control because they just follow the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), and when Trump’s executive order made GNIS officially change the name, it changed on their platforms, too.
The otherwise forgotten MapQuest saw a massive surge in downloads following its act of resistance, spiking to the top spot in the Apple App Store and recording millions of downloads. But the company was pushing back against Trump’s name changes before it got a big boost in August. MapQuest also held strong during the Gulf of Mexico situation, opting not to make the change despite GNIS officially updating the name to Gulf of America. Instead, it dropped a Gulf Name Generator that allowed users to make up their own gulf name.
Will MapQuest take down Google Maps or Apple Maps? Probably not. But it certainly seems to have carved out a niche as the map service with a spine. That counts for something.
