Despite the significant improvements it had made in its navigation and maps app since 2012, Apple didn’t achieve the hoped-for success. According to the Tech Crunch website, Apple is re-building “Apple Maps”, its maps app to provide better and more detailed navigational data, the German News Agency reported. The report said that while its Maps app previously relied on external digital map services like Tom Tom and OpenStreetMap, Apple has decided to build its own navigation database. The company initially founded the so-called "base maps”, the very lowest building block of any really good mapping system, and then completed it with high-definition data gathered by satellites. Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue told the Tech Crunch website: “We are building what we hope it will be the best maps app in the world. We want to take this to the next level.” To collect the data required for the application, Apple has been using minivans for mapping since 2015, bringing together high-quality 3D images of the streets, similar to Google Street View. Apple pointed out that these images are carefully revised to preserve the privacy of citizens in the places where they were taken, and faces or car number plates are covered.