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

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#151

Post by draugadrotten » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:23 AM UTC

edejong wrote: post #103

When I did analysis of hundreds of millions of predictions to analyze our prediction algorithm for trucks, I had a couple of metrics I would look at: MAE: mean absolute error: easy to understand metric. Given a stable system, this was my go-to standard. Bias: you put this one in. Generally, you want your predictions to be slightly pessimistic. RMSE: root mean square error. Most important one. Being 5 minutes off cons…

> RMSE: root mean square error. Most important one. Being 5 minutes off consistently is better than 30 minutes occasionally.

This is essentially why I use waze: When there is an incident or other major block of a highway, the delays can easily be hours. With waze, I am routed around them. This have saved me catching a flight and arriving to a meeting in time on several occasions, as waze routing essentially is minimizing RMSE. Being 5% late eats into my safety margin, but when a trip takes 200% my estimated travel time it ruins my day.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#152

Post by WildGreenLeave » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:34 AM UTC

chrisweekly wrote: post #55

foobarian wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Waze (or others) had a "lookback report" after arriving at the destination, where they picked all users near me at the origin, filtered out those that ended up near me at the end, and grouped by different routes taken. It would take a certain user base size to get this to work. But it would be awesome to see an apples-to-apples A/B comparison of routes, and once and for all answer the question "was I a fool to…

> "Another feature wish for Waze: voice-activated incident reporting. It's hard to tag accidents/hazards/speed traps while driving by hand, not to mention dangerous and illegal." Yeah, I'm often struck by the irony of the "typing disabled unless you confirm you're a passenger" prompt, in light of the (prompt-less) 5(?) tap workflow to report a road hazard, while driving. And it truly sucks at telling you which way to…

> But for me those are all relatively minor considerations. Waze is my constant companion behind the wheel, for one reason: there is (to my knowledge) simply no competition for its "crowd-sourced radar detector+" hazard and speed-trap reporting.

As a Dutch citizen it took me a while to realize that we are in a luxury position where we do have such an application. Its called Flitsmeister[0] and in the circles around me it is used by over half of the people that are driving frequently. It also works in several other (European?) countries as long as it is legal. (For example, in Germany only non-portable speed traps are allowed, and in Switzerland the use of something like Flitsmeister altogether is disallowed.)

[0] https://www.flitsmeister.nl/

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#153

Post by rb666 » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:36 AM UTC

I bought a new Tomtom kit recently after having used Waze and Google Maps for a couple years. I am glad I did, Tomtom has not been sitting still. Speed and interface have greatly improved and their guidance is still best in class. Same for the traffic and speedcam warnings. Not cheap, though...

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#154

Post by philjohn » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:41 AM UTC

rb666 wrote: post #153

I bought a new Tomtom kit recently after having used Waze and Google Maps for a couple years. I am glad I did, Tomtom has not been sitting still. Speed and interface have greatly improved and their guidance is still best in class. Same for the traffic and speedcam warnings. Not cheap, though...

Their iOS app is fantastic as well, it's £18 per year but you get not only full updates during that time, international maps (download the ones you need before travelling, and no need to have data access whilst there), traffic updates and fixed and mobile speed camera data (with the ability to report a mobile speed camera when you see one).

The other nice benefit, that Google has only recently added, is they have data about the speed limits on the road you're travelling on, which can be a godsend in certain circumstances.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#155

Post by Angostura » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:53 AM UTC

rb666 wrote: post #153

I bought a new Tomtom kit recently after having used Waze and Google Maps for a couple years. I am glad I did, Tomtom has not been sitting still. Speed and interface have greatly improved and their guidance is still best in class. Same for the traffic and speedcam warnings. Not cheap, though...

Their guidance is great, but I find the hardware horrible. I bought a top of the range model about 3 years ago and right from the start it was laggy. typing in an address and waiting for the letter to appear is just so silly for a company that controls the whole platform. I find Garmin UX to be much better, but their traffic system is worse.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#156

Post by Angostura » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:55 AM UTC

efrafa wrote: post #74

megy wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he location of speed traps most importantly. How in any was is that legal or ethical to have that data available.

In europe you usuallly have warning before speedtrap. You can also hear about them in fm radio. The point is to slow down, not to get you a ticket..

Though interestingly, in France it is nominally illegal to have your SatNav warn you of speed cameras. You are meant to turn that facility off when visiting.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#157

Post by Angostura » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:56 AM UTC

jannyfer wrote: post #34

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.

Where do you live? I live in Canada and I find that Apple Maps is way too late to tell me when to turn. I'm driving along at 90km/h and it tells me to turn two seconds before I pass the rural intersection, which isn't enough warning for me to slow down safely. Hearing someone say that turn-by-turn works well makes me wonder if there is something fun going on with Apple testing in miles vs. me using kilometers.

That's odd. I don't have that problem in the UK or France when I drive with it. Possibly a device glitch?

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#158

Post by Angostura » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 11:00 AM UTC

remir wrote: post #14

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 m…

The other advantage of Google Maps is that it's search is much better at finding the landmark or point of interest you want to get to. Apple Maps Search is really hit and miss.

A school local to me is called Rushcroft Foundation School. Everyone calls it Rushcroft School. Apple Maps completely fails to find it under that name.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#159

Post by sbuk » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 11:12 AM UTC

Angostura wrote: post #158

remir wrote: post #14

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 m…

The other advantage of Google Maps is that it's search is much better at finding the landmark or point of interest you want to get to. Apple Maps Search is really hit and miss. A school local to me is called Rushcroft Foundation School. Everyone calls it Rushcroft School. Apple Maps completely fails to find it under that name.

Anecdataly, Google, despite being repeatedly told, routes people incorrectly to my house. The Street is a mews that shares part of its name with a street 1 over. The amount of deliveries that have "failed" because people blindly trust Google is just ridiculous.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#160

Post by QasimK » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 11:12 AM UTC

maccard wrote: post #141

monkpit wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We haven’t heard your solution to the problem yet...

Not OP but limit cars sold in a country to whatever the speed on the freeway is. e.g. in the UK, all cars registered here must have limiters fitted to stop it exceeding 70mph.

This would prevent speeding (but stop overtaking) on motorways, which I argue are the roads that need the least speed control. Speeding is probably more harmful on all other roads where you have pedestrians, cyclists and complex road layouts.