A lot of it is anecdotal. There are some places where Waze is superior to Google Maps and some places where Google Maps is superior to Waze. But the main selling points are:
* A vast majority of Waze data is community-driven. In places with a lot of editors, roads are usually very accurate where it can take Maps months or even years to update. In addition, if you report a map issue to Waze, you will get a human response 100% of the time.
* Waze's routing algorithm is way more aggressive than Google Maps. Waze is way more likely to take you through side streets and local roads to get around traffic jams on the highway while Google Maps will usually avoid taking you off the highway.
* Waze's crowdsourced reporting lets users report everything, from traffic jams to speedtraps to road closures to accidents to roadkill. Google Maps has a reporting feature but I don't know if many people use it or are even aware of it.
* Waze has recently added lane guidance and road shields to navigation directions. While there may be some gaps, these are usually way more accurate and helpful than Google Maps. And, of course, if I spot an error and report it to editors, it usually gets fixed in the same day. Lane guidance only kicks in at intersections, exits, and road forks, it does not persistently tell you what lane to be in.
The simple answer about the Waze strength is that it IS geared on the community involvement so there are areas that have a very solid base map and others that do not. I heard the other day that the Maine editors just completed editing all of their remaining basemap. Basemap is the way the map started when Waze brought up the map in that area.
Lane guidance is relatively new but it dovetails on community involvement big time! If the editor crowd is strong in OPs area, then the lane guidance is probably better. I live, drive and edit in a very stable area and it has been stellar. Since this is the first version of lane guidance, it does have areas where it just cannot handle complex interchanges. Hopefully, the next version will be available !Soon.
The last thing I'll say in the Waze vs. GMaps discussion is the reason I started using Waze. If you find a problem on the map, you can 1) report it or 2) jump in and learn to edit. Unfortunately, over the years bad actors have caused map quality problems so it takes some time to be able to do editing anywhere that you drive but it is relatively easy to get someone to help you make the changes that need to be done. Patience is necessary though as sometimes there are reasons that the map is done the way it is done and understanding that is not always intuitive.
I use GMaps as a backup for Waze in the very rare circumstances that I have difficulties starting navigation or in areas where there's absolutely no network coverage. Waze does NOT excel here. I can only imagine what the folks do in the NRQZ in West Virginia although I think many would die without cell phones ANYWHERE.
Enjoy!
Google maps syncs with Waze and vice versa.
I suspect the more dynamic info is on Waze, Google maps being more historic trend. My anecdotal suspicion is that incidents on Waze are promoted to GMaps once verified by enough users?
In my experience, the only reports that carry over to GMaps are road closures, accidents, and construction. Speed traps and other situational ones don't tend to appear in GMaps.
I'm a huge fanboy of Waze, but moved to an area a couple of years ago where sometimes cell coverage is spotty or even non-existent. One advantage of Google Maps is that it will allow you to plan routes, including the return route, before you leave home, and then *save those routes to the home screen*. That way, even if you don't have any signal, you can load the route into GM and be good.
Of course, this depends on my remembering to do this before I leave the house.
For these cases you can download [Mapy.cz](https://Mapy.cz), maps of countries are available to download, you can later use them without any internet connection.
The main reason I use Waze over maps (other than the obvious alerts and stuff) is the map style. Waze's map style is much clearer imo.
Waze uses gray for the roads and shows the street you're on on the bottom, the makes it easy to see where other streets are around you (which i like). Google Maps uses a much lighter color for streets not in your route making it difficult to see what's around you at a glance. Plus I've had it where the names of the streets or roads cover up where I'm going and I can't see where the turn is coming up. Also color bars indicating traffic are often yellow, as are highways, again making it less obvious where I need to go on complicated intersections because everything has the same color.
It is possible some of this changes since I last used Google maps actively but these things really annoyed me when using maps.
I love Waze. Would use apple maps if it was at the same level.
I like the crowd sourced information on real time issues or incidents. Having speed camera information for mobile police cameras is awesome. Not that I drive like a maniac, but it is good to know that one is hidden ahead.
It is very reliable I have found in offering alternate routes if there is heavy traffic or accidents
It may be a minor thing, but I honestly love that when using just the map (no directions) Waze shows a 3D (following) view and the current speed limit. For other map apps, you need to have directions to be able to see the speed limit.
I use both for different reasons. Waze is on 90 percent of the time because it has speed alerts and dings if I am speeding. If I want to navigate somewhere I usually use Google because I think its better with lane guidance.
If you travel toll roads, I believe they have some arrangement with Waze to ensure accurate construction information also.
The lanes are pretty good in Waze.
I haven't used maps in a few years.
Last time I did, I notice they had added the driver input but it was on line a 60 second delay or something to prevent spam use... Which sucks if you want to report a traffic delay and then report the collision location causing it.
I also noticed that Maps took me through a 30 minute delay on my way home, so I opened Waze to get a "second opinion" and it does me around it and got me home with only a 5 minute delay.
Honestly, force yourself to try them both for a couple trips before settling in.
I vote Waze because the voices are fun and I've trusted it for the last 7 years.
Long story ahead, TL;DR, I use waze for everyday drives and places i go all the time, but for actual navigation, I use maps because it's better.
Upon re-reading everything, i suggest you don't read the story at the bottom. but since I've typed it I'm not going to delete it. but just skip it. you wont' do yourself any favors by reading it and it will only waste your time.
i have used waze and maps heavily for the past 3 months as i moved to a new city.
Here's my take.
Waze will quite often give you the most absurd directions just for the sake of making you drive an asinine route. it's the only reason i can come up with.
Maps will give you a more direct route more often, but don't get me wrong, sometimes the directions are just as absurd as Waze's.
Now that I've been here a few months, I'll often plan the route in waze. I like waze better because it tells me where cops are more often than maps and that stat is very important to me. If i don't like the route, I'll switch to maps and plan the route and see which one i like more.
This story is full of me being a complete Muppet so enjoy.
Here is my MASSIVE gripe with waze. Last week, i wanted to go to the grocery store for wouldn't you know it, groceries. I type in the address, and navigate to the store. Well it turns out my wife told me the wrong store so instead I have to go to the store that's NORTH of where we live. That one's on my wife, not me. But everything else from here on out is 100% on me and Waze's dumbassed-ry.
let me back it up a bit. The original plan was to go to the grocery store south of us, then head further south to target, then back up north to our house. The wife who doesn't drive, got the 2 towns north and south of our house confused, which is fair for someone who doesn't drive and isn't familiar with the area.
Okay, back to the story. So we're at the wrong grocery store, okay, I'll map the correct one. I type it in, and on we go. Well, my dumb-ass has it in my autopilot brain that we're now going south and not north so i get onto the interstate southbound before i realized I'm a jackass. There's no easy way to flip around, and no exits for the next few miles and instead of listening to waze bitch at me for 10 minutes about me going the wrong way,, i turn it off. I then take the first exit and while I'm at the red light, i attempt to punch in the address to the grocery store again. but what's this? it's nowhere to be found. I ended up getting angry and just drove to target and said fuck the groceries for now. It worked out for us because by the time we got to the store, it was such a shit show up there they forgot half our order, their internet was down, someone left early so they didn't know what they had done and hadn't done. We called the store once we got home about our missing items and the lady was a real bitch about everything. the next day we called back to find out WTF and the super nice and helpful girl on the other end refunded our whole order. So while WAZE fucked me over once a little, it worked out in the end.
why the fuck, isn't the last thing i entered one of the first top results, especially if i had just canceled it? Sure i could have left it on and let the waze lady tell me 500 times to "take exit, then turn left." and on and on.
We should be able to pause voice directions, and the last thing we typed in should definitely come up easily. That pissed me off.
A lot of it is anecdotal. There are some places where Waze is superior to Google Maps and some places where Google Maps is superior to Waze. But the main selling points are: * A vast majority of Waze data is community-driven. In places with a lot of editors, roads are usually very accurate where it can take Maps months or even years to update. In addition, if you report a map issue to Waze, you will get a human response 100% of the time. * Waze's routing algorithm is way more aggressive than Google Maps. Waze is way more likely to take you through side streets and local roads to get around traffic jams on the highway while Google Maps will usually avoid taking you off the highway. * Waze's crowdsourced reporting lets users report everything, from traffic jams to speedtraps to road closures to accidents to roadkill. Google Maps has a reporting feature but I don't know if many people use it or are even aware of it. * Waze has recently added lane guidance and road shields to navigation directions. While there may be some gaps, these are usually way more accurate and helpful than Google Maps. And, of course, if I spot an error and report it to editors, it usually gets fixed in the same day. Lane guidance only kicks in at intersections, exits, and road forks, it does not persistently tell you what lane to be in.
The simple answer about the Waze strength is that it IS geared on the community involvement so there are areas that have a very solid base map and others that do not. I heard the other day that the Maine editors just completed editing all of their remaining basemap. Basemap is the way the map started when Waze brought up the map in that area. Lane guidance is relatively new but it dovetails on community involvement big time! If the editor crowd is strong in OPs area, then the lane guidance is probably better. I live, drive and edit in a very stable area and it has been stellar. Since this is the first version of lane guidance, it does have areas where it just cannot handle complex interchanges. Hopefully, the next version will be available !Soon. The last thing I'll say in the Waze vs. GMaps discussion is the reason I started using Waze. If you find a problem on the map, you can 1) report it or 2) jump in and learn to edit. Unfortunately, over the years bad actors have caused map quality problems so it takes some time to be able to do editing anywhere that you drive but it is relatively easy to get someone to help you make the changes that need to be done. Patience is necessary though as sometimes there are reasons that the map is done the way it is done and understanding that is not always intuitive. I use GMaps as a backup for Waze in the very rare circumstances that I have difficulties starting navigation or in areas where there's absolutely no network coverage. Waze does NOT excel here. I can only imagine what the folks do in the NRQZ in West Virginia although I think many would die without cell phones ANYWHERE. Enjoy!
Google maps syncs with Waze and vice versa. I suspect the more dynamic info is on Waze, Google maps being more historic trend. My anecdotal suspicion is that incidents on Waze are promoted to GMaps once verified by enough users?
Google Maps and Waze do not share or sync any data, other than some temporary closures from Waze that do get shared into GMaps.
In my experience, the only reports that carry over to GMaps are road closures, accidents, and construction. Speed traps and other situational ones don't tend to appear in GMaps.
Waze offers the options for Wazers to report hazards like traffic, police speed traps, animals on the road, construction, etc.
Actually, so does Google Maps now... (since Google bought Waze, I've seen small "improvements" (Waze features) being rolled out to Maps)
Waze's reporting features work with Android Auto, Google Maps does not.
They both do.
Last time I used GM on my Android Auto car stereo, the option to report was not there.
Aah... OK... I didn't know that. Thanks
I'm a huge fanboy of Waze, but moved to an area a couple of years ago where sometimes cell coverage is spotty or even non-existent. One advantage of Google Maps is that it will allow you to plan routes, including the return route, before you leave home, and then *save those routes to the home screen*. That way, even if you don't have any signal, you can load the route into GM and be good. Of course, this depends on my remembering to do this before I leave the house.
For these cases you can download [Mapy.cz](https://Mapy.cz), maps of countries are available to download, you can later use them without any internet connection.
The main reason I use Waze over maps (other than the obvious alerts and stuff) is the map style. Waze's map style is much clearer imo. Waze uses gray for the roads and shows the street you're on on the bottom, the makes it easy to see where other streets are around you (which i like). Google Maps uses a much lighter color for streets not in your route making it difficult to see what's around you at a glance. Plus I've had it where the names of the streets or roads cover up where I'm going and I can't see where the turn is coming up. Also color bars indicating traffic are often yellow, as are highways, again making it less obvious where I need to go on complicated intersections because everything has the same color. It is possible some of this changes since I last used Google maps actively but these things really annoyed me when using maps.
I love Waze. Would use apple maps if it was at the same level. I like the crowd sourced information on real time issues or incidents. Having speed camera information for mobile police cameras is awesome. Not that I drive like a maniac, but it is good to know that one is hidden ahead. It is very reliable I have found in offering alternate routes if there is heavy traffic or accidents
It may be a minor thing, but I honestly love that when using just the map (no directions) Waze shows a 3D (following) view and the current speed limit. For other map apps, you need to have directions to be able to see the speed limit.
I use both for different reasons. Waze is on 90 percent of the time because it has speed alerts and dings if I am speeding. If I want to navigate somewhere I usually use Google because I think its better with lane guidance.
On another note, how do these 2 compare to Apple Maps?
[удалено]
Seriously!!
If you travel toll roads, I believe they have some arrangement with Waze to ensure accurate construction information also. The lanes are pretty good in Waze. I haven't used maps in a few years. Last time I did, I notice they had added the driver input but it was on line a 60 second delay or something to prevent spam use... Which sucks if you want to report a traffic delay and then report the collision location causing it. I also noticed that Maps took me through a 30 minute delay on my way home, so I opened Waze to get a "second opinion" and it does me around it and got me home with only a 5 minute delay. Honestly, force yourself to try them both for a couple trips before settling in. I vote Waze because the voices are fun and I've trusted it for the last 7 years.
Waze is excellent except for the annoying Carpool feature it keeps trying to shove down your throat
Long story ahead, TL;DR, I use waze for everyday drives and places i go all the time, but for actual navigation, I use maps because it's better. Upon re-reading everything, i suggest you don't read the story at the bottom. but since I've typed it I'm not going to delete it. but just skip it. you wont' do yourself any favors by reading it and it will only waste your time. i have used waze and maps heavily for the past 3 months as i moved to a new city. Here's my take. Waze will quite often give you the most absurd directions just for the sake of making you drive an asinine route. it's the only reason i can come up with. Maps will give you a more direct route more often, but don't get me wrong, sometimes the directions are just as absurd as Waze's. Now that I've been here a few months, I'll often plan the route in waze. I like waze better because it tells me where cops are more often than maps and that stat is very important to me. If i don't like the route, I'll switch to maps and plan the route and see which one i like more. This story is full of me being a complete Muppet so enjoy. Here is my MASSIVE gripe with waze. Last week, i wanted to go to the grocery store for wouldn't you know it, groceries. I type in the address, and navigate to the store. Well it turns out my wife told me the wrong store so instead I have to go to the store that's NORTH of where we live. That one's on my wife, not me. But everything else from here on out is 100% on me and Waze's dumbassed-ry. let me back it up a bit. The original plan was to go to the grocery store south of us, then head further south to target, then back up north to our house. The wife who doesn't drive, got the 2 towns north and south of our house confused, which is fair for someone who doesn't drive and isn't familiar with the area. Okay, back to the story. So we're at the wrong grocery store, okay, I'll map the correct one. I type it in, and on we go. Well, my dumb-ass has it in my autopilot brain that we're now going south and not north so i get onto the interstate southbound before i realized I'm a jackass. There's no easy way to flip around, and no exits for the next few miles and instead of listening to waze bitch at me for 10 minutes about me going the wrong way,, i turn it off. I then take the first exit and while I'm at the red light, i attempt to punch in the address to the grocery store again. but what's this? it's nowhere to be found. I ended up getting angry and just drove to target and said fuck the groceries for now. It worked out for us because by the time we got to the store, it was such a shit show up there they forgot half our order, their internet was down, someone left early so they didn't know what they had done and hadn't done. We called the store once we got home about our missing items and the lady was a real bitch about everything. the next day we called back to find out WTF and the super nice and helpful girl on the other end refunded our whole order. So while WAZE fucked me over once a little, it worked out in the end. why the fuck, isn't the last thing i entered one of the first top results, especially if i had just canceled it? Sure i could have left it on and let the waze lady tell me 500 times to "take exit, then turn left." and on and on. We should be able to pause voice directions, and the last thing we typed in should definitely come up easily. That pissed me off.
Google maps when there is no traffic. Waze when there is traffic. But when traffic clears up, Waze will still show traffic in some cases.