Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#11

Post by mistahchris » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:04 AM UTC

erichurkman wrote: post #4

This matches my experience trying to use Waze, multiple times, over multiple years. Sometimes the "creative" routes would seem to save time, other times exiting the freeway to take a surface street would have me sitting at the offramp for 10 minutes... possibly with all of the other Waze users who were routed that way. There's also a familiarity level of safety taking known routes. Sure, cutting down some residential…

Traveling the weird routes that waze sends me on is way more stressful to me than sitting in traffic. Especially now that I have an electric car. So I deleted Waze pretty quickly to just go with the mainstream apps. That being said, I'd still rather walk or bike than drive, even if it takes a little longer.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#12

Post by duxup » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:05 AM UTC

erichurkman wrote: post #4

This matches my experience trying to use Waze, multiple times, over multiple years. Sometimes the "creative" routes would seem to save time, other times exiting the freeway to take a surface street would have me sitting at the offramp for 10 minutes... possibly with all of the other Waze users who were routed that way. There's also a familiarity level of safety taking known routes. Sure, cutting down some residential…

There is a "I saved a minute or two (maybe) but driving down odd unfamiliar streets wasn't that fast and kinda a hassle" factor.

The mathematically better path is sometimes not THAT much more efficient or simply not more efficient for us humans even if it is just a driving preference. I really hate too many cuts through neighborhoods.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#13

Post by pat2man » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:05 AM UTC

myrandomcomment wrote: post #3

So I switched to CarPlay so I am forced to use Apple maps. It’s not that bad. I think the turn by turn is better then Google was. The only issues I cannot figure out is when you have to paths showing on the screen (dashboard screen) and you want to pick the other one (not default). There seems to be no way to do that. You just have to know to make that alternate turn then it picks it up.

As far as I can tell you have to choose at the beginning, once you locked a route in you have to cancel and start over to get another route.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#14

Post by remir » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:07 AM UTC

I used Apple Maps a couple of times and it did its job well. The UI is pleasant and simple to use and the directions are clear and accurate.

When there was an error on the map, giving feedback was easy and the map was corrected relatively quickly.

But to me, the main advantages of Google Maps are Streetview, offline caching and better POI. Web access is also a huge plus because there's way more eye balls seeing the map and making corrections so I bet Gmap is more accurate.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#15

Post by gigatexal » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:11 AM UTC

I’ve been burned by Apple maps too many times. I just use google maps now.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#16

Post by SEJeff » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:12 AM UTC

jacksmith21006 wrote: post #2

Here is the best comparison I have seen with Apple maps and Google maps hands down. https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat/ Google Maps's Moat - Justin O'Beirne

I came to the comments for this post literally to post that article, which articulates things nicely.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#17

Post by will_walker » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:14 AM UTC

This is great.

Waze provides an additional service here - pointing out police locations, which is extremely useful over long stretches of highway.

I wonder if google Maps' performance is due in part to Waze users being shunted off of main highways?

Another weird though - if Waze is spoon feeding you ads, don't they want you to drive as long as possible?

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#18

Post by epberry » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:16 AM UTC

One feature I miss in navigation services is an ability to choose the “easy” route. For example, I live in the Midwest and usually I’d rather take the interstate, even if it’s 5 minutes longer, than a series of country roads. Obviously you can choose this when you know where you’re going but forget it if you’re in an unfamiliar area. A simple heuristic for this would be which route involves the fewest different roads.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#19

Post by tedivm » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:18 AM UTC

erichurkman wrote: post #4

This matches my experience trying to use Waze, multiple times, over multiple years. Sometimes the "creative" routes would seem to save time, other times exiting the freeway to take a surface street would have me sitting at the offramp for 10 minutes... possibly with all of the other Waze users who were routed that way. There's also a familiarity level of safety taking known routes. Sure, cutting down some residential…

I feel like the "creative" routes have gotten so much worse too. Some of my favorite examples-

* Driving from Fremont to Berkeley and it took me over half of the bay bridge to Treasure Island, where it had me loop around and get back on and over to 80.

* From Union City to Hayward, where it had me take a street that had not finished being built.

* In what should have been a 30 minute trip but took three times that, Waze managed to find the only one lane dirt road in the entire Bay Area and send me along it.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#20

Post by bri3d » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 1:20 AM UTC

bdcravens wrote: post #9

bowmessage wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now we get to risk running malware / bricking our cars too :) great!

My car also supports the same functionality for Android, with all the permissiveness that goes with. I can only presume there's isolation between essentially an external display for the phone and the car's core features.

Yes, especially in the case of CarPlay it's just a second display streaming protocol. Additionally, most auto nav systems run on a separate CAN (Controller Area Network) bus although this isolation is usually extremely leaky and not particularly secure (the "gateways" linking the system are often full of memory safety exploits at best or simply pass malicious messages between buses or don't verify anything at worst). But in short, jailbreaking your iPhone is much more dangerous for the security of your personal data on your phone than the integrity of your car.