I’ve always been confused why Google keeps Waze and Maps completely separate. Google Maps interface with Waze crowd sourcing would be killer.
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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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.
What's aggressive routing? Like more prone to induce road rage?
Like making you take an extra 10 turns, take a longer route, and drive on too-narrow roads, to potentially save only several minutes of being stopped in traffic.
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.
Be careful of confirmation bias and the availability heuristic. One irresponsible person does not define the masses.
My parents: I don't trust Google. That's why I use Waze.
Last year me: I don't trust Reddit, that's why I use old.Reddit.
They never should have been allowed to buy it in the first place.
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
Don't worry, it will be on killedbygoogle.com soon
Along with their own search engine and the internet when it was fun and useful
Which, in this particular case, wouldn't be a bad thing. Just integrate the community aspects into Google Maps, make them optional.
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’m not sure how an ETA could be personalized
In Germany for example there are large sections of the highway with no enforced speed limit. Depending on the traffic, I can easily speed with 200 km/h. Do I? Well, that will depend. At least in the past I did. So the prognosis when I will arrive on a route with mostly highways would be highly different for me than for someone who prefers to drive 120 km/h.
Obviously the other way around is the same: even when 130 km/h are the allowed maximum, I could legally drive 100km/h (or even less). If the software calculated my time of arrival by assuming I will speed to the maximum, it will be wrong.
--> Personalization.
Waze has other features that Maps is missing.
Waze is the only routing software I know that can handle vignettes.
What are vignettes in the context of driving?
They allow you to drive on certain roads in some countries.
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.
It makes me sad that people are losing their jobs. Somewhere out there are real people with real families wondering what they’re going to do if they’re out of a job. It just sucks.
The secret ingredient is crime
~~Embrace~~ Buy, ~~extend~~ do nothing with it, extinguish.
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.
Ugh
~~Just a reminder that Wyze Bridge exists. It's great for self hosting your wyze camera stream. It also works with Home Assistant~~
Wyze, Waze, Tomato, Tomahtoe
I read good. Sorry about that, wrong app.
I think this is about Waze, the mapping/navigation app.
Holy cow you're right, sorry about that. That'll teach me to read good.
Surprised it took this long honestly. For my navigation needs, Magic Earth works great, and does include crowd sourced reporting similar to Waze.
Not surprising
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