Apple is expanding the capabilities of its Maps app in Europe to help users charge their electric vehicles or find bike rental hubs, according to Bloomberg. The company has added the locations of the U.K.’s electric vehicle charging stations by incorporating data from Cirrantic’s Moovility service.
It has also added public bicycle rental and drop-off points to maps of London, New York and Paris in a catch-up to long-time mobile navigation leader Google, which has listed such stations in multiple countries for some time.Apple laid out its updates to Maps in a briefing in London Wednesday.
Improving its mapping products has become a key focal point for Apple in its battle with Google. Apple introduced electric vehicle charging points in Maps in the U.S. in December. In May last year, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said his company would open a new Indian development center in Hyderabad, with a specific focus on speeding up the development of more competitive mapping tools. It plans to employ as many as 4,000 people in that facility.
Apple first integrated transit information for the U.K. into Apple Maps in December, which includes route information for trains and buses across the nation, as well as London Underground services in the capital.
“We think that consistent, live information of the growing charger infrastructure increases the confidence of EV drivers and, especially with Apple Maps, attracts new user groups to sustainable mobility offerings like EV cars,“ said Arne Meusel, CEO and co-founder of Cirrantic. “In the U.K. we started with supporting the major charger operators, including Podpoint, CYC, Ecotricity, NPower and NewMotion. Any interested operator is welcome to set up a connection with us.“
AgentOS is Infobip’s response to a phase in which agents are becoming an important tool for process automation and customer communication. Krešo Žmak says the market is still at an early stage, but clients are moving away from AI for the sake of innovation and towards measurable results. The next challenge will be controlling costs, user experience, and the nondeterministic nature of agentic systems.
Telecom operators approach AI from two directions: as providers of infrastructure for the digital transformation of other industries and as organisations embedding AI into their own processes. A1 Hrvatska has moved from prototypes to concrete products, from customer support to sovereign European cloud services. Daniel Šimić says workforce profiles are also changing, with fast learning, customer understanding and adaptability becoming more important.
Burra was created as a platform for consolidating IT services companies in Southeast Europe, with a commercial focus on Western Europe and the United States. Its first members, Devōt, Tacta and CoreLine, continue to run their existing businesses while integration is planned gradually, primarily through new projects. Sven Marušić says the aim is not to turn founders into corporate employees, but to build a larger organisation in which they remain shareholders and drivers of growth.
