Google Maps is the king of navigation for me in most respects. When I just want to walk somewhere, when I need a quick and safe bike route optimized for bicycles, or when I need to know that one of New York’s subway cars contains flaming garbage and is delaying the next train? Google Maps all the way.
But I drive a car and ride a motorcycle often, too. Long ago, I shunned Google Maps for driving navigation. It wouldn’t give me directions far enough in advance of the turn or the exit ramp, and it would’ve been nice if it could give me directions two turns in advance if the second came very quickly after the first.
Apple Maps is a bit better about those two aspects, in my experience, but they both pale in comparison to Waze. Google might’ve owned Waze since 2013 and merged the two teams in 2022, but the two navigation apps are as different as chalk and cheese.
Google hasn’t made any big announcements about it, but from the way it quietly added a few Waze-like features to Google Maps, we can tell that Google has the green tinge of envy.
more live road condition updates
Google Maps doesn’t have the wacky, customizable icons or the enormous selection of sometimes humorous narrators (I think my Waze voice is just an Australian named Kylie…). Waze became my driving navigation app of choice because of its user-submitted road conditions.
Google has had user-submitted driving hazards, such as crashes and slowdowns, but not nearly to the same degree as Waze. Now weather-related road conditions, such as “unplowed road” for those snowed under or “low visibility” for heavy fog can be reported by Google Maps users, which will in turn be visible to other users in the area.
As Android Police reported, these updates aren’t live on the Android app yet, although it’s a given that they will be at some point. Android is a Google property, too, and there’s no way they’d leave the new features for Google Maps users of the iOS app and Android Auto only.
There’s one element of Waze that Google Maps couldn’t be further from: its freewheeling cheekiness and fun. Waze has a Colonel Sanders navigation voice. Since when does Google have anything like that? Google Maps is about as funny as a wet towel clumped on the bathroom floor.
The post Google Maps Is Trying to Become Waze With These Latest Updates appeared first on VICE.
