With Apple widely expected to announce improvements for its in-house mapping effort alongside "iOS 10" this summer, the company's fleet of sensor-laden vans continues to ply the streets — even at night.

Apple's vans have been spotted with increasing regularity since they first appeared. A snapshot provided by AppleInsider reader JP shows one of the readily-identifiable vehicles plying the highways outside of New York City after dark, while others have been seen on late-night runs through Boston and its surrounding areas.

After a few months of mystery, Apple officially acknowledged the maps data program last June. The company now provides a listing of locations where the vans are expected to appear in the immediate future.

The sensors attached to the vans — cameras, LiDAR, and high-sensitivity GPS, among others — point to a mapping effort broadly similar to that run by Google.

Apple maps van rolling around Boston pic.twitter.com/klngX9ycBw — Matt Karolian (@mkarolian) January 23, 2016

That program is likely to include both ground truth operations as well as environmental capture. The former verifies that roads are where the map thinks they are; the latter scans and collects data on the surrounding area, including depth maps and photographs.