MapQuest’s app surges to No. 1

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2:21I'm Imran Lake America Shaikh, and your Daily Crunch for Tuesday, featuring three big tech headlines, starts right now. On his last days as Apple CEO, Tim Cook offered a rousing endorsement of his successor, John Ternus, the company's senior vice president of hardware engineering. In a memo to employees, Cook reminded staff that he's not leaving Apple, just stepping away from the role of CEO, while declaring that few people understand what it takes to build products that change the world the way John does. Ternus' elevation to the top job suggests that Apple's next era will see a renewed focus on hardware and product execution.

2:57You see, under Ternus, Apple shipped a number of notable products, most recently the new ultra-thin iPhone Air, the lower-cost MacBook Neo, and AirPods with hearing health features. He also led the hardware engineering team across Apple's full device lineup. Hardware will play an important role in the AI era also, not only in terms of chips, but also the devices people use to run enterprise AI. Apple this year, for instance, offered earlier releases of its new Mac models, the Mac Mini and Mac Studio, compared with years past driven by AI demand. Cook's memo reported by Bloomberg and others naturally says little about Apple's future when it comes to AI, services, regulation, China, or the other challenges that lie ahead.

3:39Instead, Cook focuses on his gratitude for the opportunity to lead Apple and exalts the company's culture as ultimately what matters most. Cook will remain at Apple as executive chairman and will continue to manage political relationships, including those with President Trump and the Chinese government. On X, Cook also wrote, sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I'm excited for the next chapter. Nearly every company that's trying to deploy artificial intelligence runs into the same problem.

4:20It's hard to integrate the tech into everyday operations. Industrial heavyweight Caterpillar has spent decades dealing with a version of that problem in the physical world, And now it's using its experience to deploy AI. Caterpillar's push into the autonomous space started with mining, where labor shortages and hazardous conditions can make automation particularly useful. Today, it sells automated haul trucks, drilling, underground loaders, dozers, remote-controlled construction equipment, and a whole lot more. It also offers a software command center, fleet management, and even remote terrain intelligence as part of its autonomous toolkit.

4:57The industrial giant is now applying AI more broadly, including in tools used by technicians and its own employees. One example is the Cat AI Assistant, which lets field technicians standing next to a machine use voice commands to pull up repair procedures, troubleshoot potential problems, and identify parts that may be needed before beginning a repair. Caterpillar says the tool is now being used by customers, operators, and technicians. The assistant draws on Caterpillar's proprietary data, which spans information generated by its connected machines. According to Caterpillar, it has about 1.6 million connected assets globally and more than 16 petabytes of structured data.

5:36Well, MapQuest stood up to President Immortan Joe, I mean Donald Trump, and now its app is, well, reaping the rewards. You see, the OG of online mapping, as the company calls itself, announced on Thursday that it would not change the name of Lake Ontario on its maps to Lake America, despite Trump's executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the lake's name in the U.S. Geographic Naming Service. As a result, MapQuest's mobile app downloads soared, sending the iOS app to the number four position on the U.S. App Store's top charts for apps, not including games, as of Monday morning on the U.S.

6:12East Coast. MapQuest also reached the number 8 position overall in the U.S. App Store across both apps and games, and it became the number 1 navigation app in the United States. In Canada's App Store, the app reached number 2 overall as of Sunday evening. The 30-year-old company remarked that it received hundreds of thousands of new downloads since its decision to keep the name Lake Ontario in place, and saw its app usage climb to 50 times above its normal levels. Third-party data from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower confirms the surge, noting that MapQuest saw 184 ,000 and 162 ,000 total global and U.S.

6:49app downloads, respectively, during the week beginning August 24th, each representing an increase of more than 10x week over week. In the U.S., daily downloads were up 128 % day over day from August 26th to August 30th. MapQuest also released an online tool that lets you jokingly rename Lake Ontario to whatever you want it to be, Then, share the results on social media, because of course. As of Monday morning, Apple Maps has yet to rename the Great Lake to Lake America and has not issued a statement about its plans. MapQuest's app has been downloaded 687 ,000 times worldwide this year so far, up 29 % year-over-year, sensor tower estimated.

7:30Since 2012, MapQuest has been downloaded 24.4 million times, with 97 % of those installs coming from the good old US of A. And folks, that's your Daily Crunch. Today's stories were reported by Sarah Perez, Kate Park, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists. We'll see you here tomorrow, same Tech Time, same Crunch channel, and until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.

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