In February we posted a report titled "Could Apple be on the Cusp of a New Era of Remarkable Innovation?" In that report we noted the lunacy of Apple news sites hunting down mini vans with LIDAR systems that were rented by Apple. It was like watching a UFO cult gone mad photographing these vans. Well today Apple set the story straight. A new Apple webpage recently set up titled "Apple Maps vehicles" states that "Apple is driving vehicles around the world to collect data which will be used to improve Apple Maps. Some of this data will be published in future Apple Maps updates."

Apple further noted that they're "committed to protecting your privacy while collecting this data. For example, we will blur faces and license plates on collected images prior to publication."

Obviously Apple wanted to put an end to these silly stories about them building a car and so they've listed the countries and cities where Apple's mapping vans will be working in so that run-away rumors could be squashed once and for all. Apple lists Ireland, England (East England, Greater London, South East and West Midlands) and select cities in the U.S. as noted below:

Arizona Pima (Tucson); California Alameda (Oakland); Los Angeles (Los Angeles); Florida Orange County (Orlando); Georgia Fulton (Atlanta); Hawaii Hawaii (Oahu); Illinois Cook (Chicago); Massachusetts Suffolk (Boston); Michigan Wayne (Detroit); Missouri St. Louis (St. Louis); New York New York (New York City); Texas Dallas (Dallas), Tarrant (Fort Worth); Utah Salt Lake (Salt Lake City); and Washington King (Seattle)

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 7pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.