Arturrr:
In early 2017, a conversation with yet another Waze fanboy finally nudged me to start a navigation app experiment. I was skeptical that the Alphabet owned company could meaningfully best its parent’s home grown Google Maps. I was also curious whether Apple Maps had discovered competence since its iOS 6 release.
I thus set out to answer three questions:
- Which navigation app estimates the shortest travel time?
- How does each app over/underestimate travel times?
- Which navigation app actually gets you to your destination most quickly?
Which led to these three conclusions:
- If you want to get to your destination most quickly, use Google Maps.
- If you want an accurate prediction from your navigation app to help you arrive at your destination on time, use Apple Maps.
- If thinking you’ll get to your destination quickly helps to ease your commuter anxiety, use Waze.
Very interesting. Obviously, this is a relatively small sample size. It’d be interesting if there was some way to crowd-source this experiment to come up with a map overlay that showed which solution worked best in a specific area.
This analysis isn’t helpful unless the significance of the results. Is -2% or +1% for accuracy meaningful or due to randomness? Heck, even the 6% difference in overall time may not be statistically significant.
I agree, the conclusions look more politically motivated than they are informative.
I used to love Waze until a couple of its more creative navigation solutions led to a missed flight and serious trouble with homeland security. I now use Apple Maps mostly, with the occasional assist from Google Maps. I find them to be more similar than different as this point, although Google is definitely better at listing stuff if you’re looking for random businesses in an area rather than a specific destination.
Waze has also become a complete mess in terms of UI, with ads popping up when I stop at a traffic light (you know, when I can actually look at the app for useful info, an ad is now in the way). I now tell people to avoid Waze like the plague and use Apple or Google.
All of this stuff highly depends on where one lives.
For example, the driver in question is in the Bay Area, land of terrible traffic (well, not LA, but still), and every driver uses Waze. So, all those detours Waze suggests are being saturated by other drivers. Also, Apple Maps is by far at its best in the Bay Area.
I use Apple Maps mostly, because I (a) also live in the Bay Area and (b) CarPlay. It’s fine; my main issue with it is it has poorer PoI and its routing around local roads is sometimes clunky. But I tend to be the kind of person who leaves and arrives early, and so I prefer pessimistic time estimates that I can beat. The UI is also really nice and clean.
yeah the f’ing ads made Waze a fail for me. no, i don’t need to stop at that hotel right now. what on earth…
I generally (usually, almost always?) avoid using Google products…which is a shame, because I liked using Waze before Google picked it up. I also have soured on Waze due to its effect on otherwise quiet neighborhoods: I think residents that are upset at increased traffic have a point.
I find Apple Maps is just fine, and as the default mapping app on my iPhone (and not a Google product) I’m fine using it.
Though Waze did save my butt on one stressful making-it-to-the-airport route one time.
Agreed. The ads are a nightmare, and the navigation has gotten bad as well, constantly guiding me down dead stopped freeways and directly into construction zones. Maybe I live in a market that’s too small (population 500k should have enough Wazers), but I can’t use it anymore.
Not only that, but except on very long drives the actual difference in time is trivial. If I have a 40 minute drive and one app is overly optimistic by 10% I arrive 4 entire minutes later! OH NO!!!
It’s an interesting post and a fun thing to have done but this reminds me of the old Louis CK bit – ‘everything’s amazing and no one is happy’. We have voice activated navigation assistants that use fracking satellites to track your position in real time so they can plot the best route from where you are to where you need to be and that can, with a very small error, tell you when you’ll get there… and we’re concerned about a slight inaccuracy in that estimate. Sheesh.
I use Waze if I know where I am going, for alerts. It’s too slow for quick turns. This is on an iPhone X, so it is the app. As far as ads are concerned, I don’t look at the app very often since I know where I am going. I do wish alerts were more granular though. I’d like to disable “pothole” alerts. I live in New England. Roads ARE potholes.
I use Apple Maps when it’s easier, like something in my address book, plus it tends to give me better search results or more accurate initial “guess” results.
I use Google Maps when I have no idea where I am going because it’s quick and accurate.
The thing Google Maps is significantly better at than Waze and Apple Maps is finding relevant things on the way to your destination (food, hotel, etc.).
You’re really trading off inconveniences when deciding between Google Maps and Apple Maps for business searches. Apple will find much fewer business, but Google will find many businesses that have never existed/don’t exist where Google thinks/closed a decade ago.
These days I mostly do Google web searches and then use Apple Maps for navigation, a process Google intentionally makes harder by taking addresses captive in search results.
Even for navigation, Google will sometimes take you to the wrong place or on a ridiculous route (and sometimes the wrong CITY). But Apple Maps will ask you to make illegal U turns. I use Apple Maps because I can usually figure out that last block.
Or just try them all yourself and decide. I have used all three and prefer Apple Maps by far. Looks the best, easiest to use while driving, works with Siri, and actually gives me good directions whereas Google Maps and Waze have me going down one ways or turning left while traveling doe the freeway at 70mph.
Results may vary. I always keep track of whether I “beat” the initial ETA or not, and with Waze I almost always beat it or match it exactly.
Also this is far from a blind test. Obviously he knows which app he’s using. Not hard to game the results, even unconsciously, if he wants to make a particular app look better or worse.
I’ve been using Waze since the beginning. When Google bought them I still log in with a separate from Google email. I am sure they still anonymously track my movements though.
How do people log in with Waze now?
Do you need to use a Google email or?
“everything’s amazing and no one is happy.”
Welcome to the driving force behind all technological advancements. Why are people complaining about flying? Now you can get on a metal tube and get from Los Angeles to New York in 6 hours, instead of taking months and worrying about fording rivers or catching dysentery.
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Funny, I just ran into that yesterday. Google listed a business nearby that turned out to be closed for over a year.
I have a long commute these days and generally pick up my kids after school. With this in mind, I start paying attention to the estimated arrival times about 30 minutes before I have to leave as it can take any where from 50 to 80 minutes to get to the school depending on traffic and I don’t want to be too early or late. The article is absolutely correct in that Apple Maps is generally much more accurate about estimated arrival times than Google. Google is much too optimistic and this matters when the school affords a 10 minute window for pickup before you’re hit with a “after school care” fee. Apple Maps usually nails it within 5 minutes while Google can be off by as much as 15.
In the Eastern Panhandle of WV and surrounding area, I default to Apple Maps and I’m happy…. unless I’m planning a bike route. In that case, Google is the only one with that option (wipes out roads that I cannot take a bike on).
Don’t know. On the rare instance when I use Waze any more, it’ll be when my girlfriend is with me and we use her phone.
I’ve found Apple’s “you need to leave now” feature pretty good, but it doesn’t take into account the (non-GPS-assisted) maze of getting me down to my car and my car out of the complex. So when it says “you need to leave now” there’s no time for anything but “YESSIR” and a sprint.
If you lose connectivity, Google’s offline maps are a lifesaver. Apple caches the route, but go slightly off it and it’s lost.
Ha! That’s on you. Luckily I can be to my car and heading out the lot within 5 minutes, but yeah when it says “leave now” it really means “leave NOW asshole!”
“Hey Siri, call me asshole” would solve a lot of problems.
I’ve found WAZE ETAs to be spot on, for both short trips and long. But what makes the deal for me is the opt-in Speedometer embedded in the display, right next to the speed limit, plus an adjustable warning threshold when you exceed. Other helpful features either well hidden or absent from the others: Share your ETA, traffic delay times and the overall crowdsourcing experience. I wish all of them would allow manual routing input because, seriously, sometimes I do know a better way from here to there.
FWIW The next version of iOS is going to allow Waze and other third party mapping apps to function in CarPlay.