Apple Maps Just Got Insanely Realistic — Here's The Tech Behind It

Apple just did something nobody expected; they beat Google at Google's own game. At WWDC 2026, Apple quietly announced that Flyover in Apple Maps is getting a complete visual overhaul powered by 3D Gaussian Splatting, a technology that came out of a research lab in France just two years ago and has now made it into your Maps app. No more melted buildings. No more broccoli trees. No more blobby power lines. Just photorealistic city-scale 3D that actually looks real. And here's what makes this w