I’ve always been confused why Google keeps Waze and Maps completely separate. Google Maps interface with Waze crowd sourcing would be killer.
They’re separate because Waze has a reputation of giving more “aggressive” routing, and has a social aspect to it. Stuff that really doesn’t belong in Google Maps.
And through quiet neighborhood communities where people are out in the streets playing with the kids, walking the dog or getting a run in.
Someone in my neighborhood got hit while walking their dog by someone using Waze.
They never should have been allowed to buy it in the first place.
Don’t worry, it will be on killedbygoogle.com soon
Which, in this particular case, wouldn’t be a bad thing. Just integrate the community aspects into Google Maps, make them optional.
at this point it doesn’t matter, but the fact that they were allowed to buy it is a travesty.
Waze was the only app with the capilarity to get enough mapping data to be competitive.
Google Maps’ pricing for their API is insane and there’s no viable alternative outside the USA.
They bought it to kill it.
Waze has other features that Maps is missing.
Waze is the only routing software I know that can handle vignettes.
Google Maps is a good general maps app, but Waze is really good at one thing only: driving. In Waze you can share your drive, look for gas stations along the way (with prices and travel time), use toll passes, and get a personalized ETA based on your driving.
Google has had the chance to implement these features into Maps for the 10 years it has owned Wazd but just hasn’t, and I don’t think they will. At least not all of them.
You can do all these in Maps (minus toll passes). I’m not sure how an ETA could be personalized (I don’t use Waze) but Maps is pretty accurate with ETAs as is.
I’ve long wondered how much longer Google would maintain two different mapping apps. It’s long seemed like Waze acted as a beta test of Google Maps experiments, but I think it’s starting to outlive our digital overlords’ usefulness
If google implemented the social aspects of Waze into maps it would be the ultimate maps app. I understand that the nature of google maps is different than Waze’s, but maybe including a social mode in maps that shows all the information that Waze shows would make it a million times better.
