Apple Maps putting Long Island drivers at risk with false red light camera alerts

Sigh. It’s May 2025, folks, and believe it or not, Apple Maps still hasn’t caught up with a change that happened on Long Island way back in 2024. If you’re driving through Suffolk County, New York, chances are your iPhone is still screaming about red light cameras that no longer exist. You see, the county shut the whole program down in December of last year, but Apple hasn’t bothered to update its navigation data. The alerts keep coming like the cameras are still up and active -- but they actually aren’t.

For years, Suffolk’s red light camera program was a point of frustration. Sure, officials said it was about safety, but many residents saw it differently -- especially once it brought in nearly $290 million. Then came a court ruling that said the extra fees attached to the tickets weren’t legal. That basically brought the system to its knees. Suffolk shut it all down. But Apple? Still acting like nothing’s changed.

In case you are wondering, I personally tested this on an iPhone 16 Pro Max running the latest iOS version. I was getting the false alerts as recent as May 3, 2025! Quite frankly, it isn’t just annoying -- it is worrying.

Drivers depending on Apple Maps are now stuck reacting to ghost warnings. You approach an intersection, the app warns of a red light camera, and you hit the brakes -- even though there’s no reason to. It’s unnecessary and disruptive. And it could cause accidents. Truth be told, it’s a bad look for Apple. For a company that pushes out flashy features every few months, you’d think updating map data would be a basic task.

Let’s not forget -- this is a Suffolk County issue, not all of Long Island. Nassau County still runs red light cameras. But Suffolk pulled the plug months ago. That’s not a small detail. It’s a fundamental change in how driving enforcement works in that area, and Apple is still stuck in the past.

Apple Maps is on every iPhone. It’s not some niche product. It shapes how millions of people drive and make decisions behind the wheel. So when the app keeps shouting about enforcement that ended last year, it makes drivers question how accurate any of its other data is.

At this point, there’s no excuse. Apple has the money. Apple has the data. Apple has the engineers. But somehow, Suffolk County drivers are still being spooked by alerts tied to a program that hasn’t been active since 2024. That’s not just outdated -- it’s careless.