News

How the beta is going, in plain words: the numbers, the costs, the mistakes and what we are doing about them.

1. September 16, 2026News

   Two questions the app will ask you once

   The next build asks you two things: whether the app may share how fast the traffic around you is moving, and whether it may report turns that construction has closed. Both are off until you say yes, both send counts rather than trips, and here is exactly what each one does and does not send. I did not want to ask. The routes are not good enough without it.

2. September 14, 2026News

   Three roads, and the closure the map could see but I could not

   A trip to Costco gave me one route, a nineteen-kilometre loop, when I knew a shorter road. Chasing that one screen turned into a rule for how many routes you get, how different they have to be, and why a long drive is judged differently from a short one.

3. September 8, 2026News

   Where your data actually goes

   A tester asked how the traffic data works and whether Canadians' locations get shared with TomTom. It is a better question than our own home page was answering, so here is the whole picture: what we keep, what leaves, what never leaves, and the one gap we have not closed yet.

4. September 7, 2026News

   Let's talk about money

   Maple Maps exists to keep Canadians' maps and data out of American hands, which is exactly why it cannot be free to run. No ads, no selling data. Two ways to cover the cost, and I want your thoughts before choosing.

5. September 6, 2026News

   The first week: 1,600 sign-ups, one outage, and what it all costs

   We planned for a hundred testers and got sixteen hundred sign-ups in five days. Here is what that did to the app, to the map provider's bill, and to the way we will talk to you from now on.