I don't get it. Where's the evidence that these maps are based on OSM data versus, say, Navteq or TeleAtlas data?
The tiles use terrain data that nobody thinks is from OSM, and when I look at North American cities, the street grids certainly don't seem to match any better than you'd expect.
This post sounds pretty confident but they don't explain why.
One of the pingbacks on that article[1] shows that Apple's tiles have features (like lanes in a parking lot) that is only in OSM data, and that Apple is mis-rendering it.
The tiles use terrain data that nobody thinks is from OSM, and when I look at North American cities, the street grids certainly don't seem to match any better than you'd expect.
This post sounds pretty confident but they don't explain why.