I used to be a huge Waze fan, and I do still use it, but both Apple Maps and Google Maps provide much better UX in a lot of ways: I really miss lane guidance, for instance. I think Waze still has the best traffic guidance, but I'm pretty sure the number of times I've clicked "yes, now that you've shown me this ad, I would like you to stop the route I'm on now and take me 17 minutes out of my way to go to the nearest Burger King, thanks" is 0%.
Also, whoever thought it was a great idea to permanently stick a button in the user interface that brings up an ad for Waze Carpool needs to be soundly whipped. I mean, I don't have any studies to back this up, but I'm pretty sure that when someone is in their car already, using Waze, they don't need to schedule a carpool pickup. Because they're in their car. Driving.
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 side streets might save 60 seconds, but no kid is going to run out into the road chasing a soccer ball on 101.
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 take the back roads instead of the main route?"
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.
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.
I have had waze same me hours on trips. Reporting accidents a few miles ahead of me that have just happened. Often waze takes me on routes that are just slightly faster, but they keep me moving which I prefer.
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.
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.
I'd like to see a review of how the various navigation apps do in situations with unusually heavy, unusually widespread traffic, such as when people were trying to go home after the 2017 total eclipse in the US.
I was using Waze when leaving Madras, Oregon, after the eclipse heading to the Puget Sound area of Washington. It suggested a route that would bypass a couple miles of slow traffic, but the road it sent me down was a dirt road with a periodic undulation in it that caused massive vibration, and my car and the two or three others that were on it were throwing up so much dust it was very hard to see. I turned around and went back to the main route and put up with the slow traffic.
A friend of mine was also leaving Madras, but heading to California. He was using Google. It also was giving some poor route advice. Here's what he told me when we compared notes of our trips home:
> Google kept sending us onto logging roads: we bailed on the first when we were told to turn onto a non-existent road; we bailed on the second when a van came out and told us that ~5 cars were stuck axle-deep in mud; we bailed on the third when we got to a sign informing us that we were about to enter an off-road-vehicle trail.
I'd also like to see a review of how the various cell phone companies handled it. Both me and my friend are on T-Mobile, and something like 90% of the text messages we tried to exchange were either lost or delivered hours late. I think we managed one or two short voice calls. Most voice calls either did not connect, or on occasion would connect but only one of us could hear the other.
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.
I want the opposite of this; sometimes when I’m on a road trip, I want to drive through random one- or two-lane roads that go through super cool areas. One time when I was driving cross-country (US) google routed me for about 10 miles through a 1.5-lane road through a forest instead of the highway. It was magical. Beautiful, winding roads, tons of animals, etc. It’s super hard to find roads like that normally.
Google Maps does this to a certain extent (but it might need some learning period). At times you might notice the route it suggests you is labeled as "best", not as "fastest". Usually, for example, it sends me via the highway even if it is theoretically 2 minutes slower than the alternative via tons of small roads / intersections. Maps is also pretty smart in estimates in general, it takes intersections and the average wait time / time lost into account.
In addition to that, Google Maps has recently added a "regular routes" feature in the personal content settings. Their description: "When providing directions, suggest routes you regularly take based on your Location History.". I have noticed that after overriding the route Maps gives you and doing something else, if it's close enough in theoretical time, Maps will pick your 'preferred' route by default after a while. The original Maps route will still be shown while driving (as one of the grey alternative routes).
This!! I prefer to take roads wheres theres protected turns if its making me take a left. I hate trying to take a left onto a highway from a small road. Really need an option to prefer bigger roads.
That would be a great feature. Where I live Waze usually decides that the quickest route is through a series of side streets through less than ideal areas in the city. There should be a way tell Waze that there's a reason few cars pass through there
I used to swear by Waze, proselytizing to anyone who would listen, and otherwise. There are two main reasons I stopped using it altogether.
1) As tends to happen with our favorite apps, they started fucking with the UI. I don't remember exactly what it was at this point, but every release after Google's acquisition included some changes that made it less convenient and more aggravating.
2) I gave up having tower service and went wifi-only. Google Maps is very good at storing the map offline and recalculating without an Internet connection. Waze needs an internet connection every time a fly passes between you and the GPS satellite.
I still miss the police warnings, but I also changed my driving habits to where I don't need them anymore.
I do not drive much (12k km per year) and this is 80% on roads I know. The remaining 20% is the road to vacation, usually with everyone in my region going to the same spots (this is in France).
I am always wondering how good these apps are in such circumstances, when on a specific day everyone goes to the same place. They do not synchronize, which would help people to drive different roads from the start.
Last Saturday I drove from Paris to the Alps, together with everybody else. GM was suggesting the straight road (A6) and I decided to take a completely different one (A5 via Annecy), supposedly 1h30 longer (over an official 7h30 trip). I arrived me of les at the same time as the others, with less stress (not one traffic jam).
I would love to have an app which talks with the others to suggest an alternate road "because the others are PLANNING to take the obvious one"
The only reason I use Apple Maps is I trust Cupertino with my map queries, which can mindlessly leak lots of information. They aren’t trying to sell me ads and have a record of putting privacy first.
What I like about Waze: All the data other than the route itself, he location of speed traps most importantly.
What I like about Apple Maps: The actual on-screen navigation experience. I find it’s the clearest about which lane I need to be in.
Waze is terrible about weirdly-shaped intersections and ramps, both in the maps themselves and the instructions about where I need to be to turn/exit.
If you think all the alleys and left turns are annoying, that’s nothing. On I-270, outside DC, it often has me bouncing back and forth between the local and express lanes, for no reason. Probably because some other user nearby in each lane is going a slightly different speed.
Waze always has the latest accident and traffic reports. There are three main routes to my job. I always open it up in the morning and check travel times for each one (just press Routes button instead of Go). I have my preferred route, which is always fastest and shortest, but if Waze ever suggests one of the other two, I know I should listen. When I look into it, it’s usually some major accident or something affecting a lane of travel. The few times I ignored it I deeply regretted it. Makes the difference between a 60 minute commute vs a 90 min commute on a bad day.
Google Maps is the same for me. Some of the accidents in Google Maps are labeled "reported by Waze" or something like that. It seems like I get the best of both worlds:
crowdsourced traffic data from Waze within the clean interface of Google Maps.
Definitely. I find myself using Waze primarily for that sort of hotspot detection, when I know all/almost all potential routes, but want to know how bad the best/worst case travel times are. If Waze reroutes me onto surface streets, best call in to my first meeting, that sort of thing.
Interesting, but Apple Maps is still completely, utterly useless in Portugal (in both major cities, for any kind of trip), in Dublin (as a pedestrian) and in Madrid (as a commuter/pedestrian).
It annoys me to no end that it is incapable of coping with local street addresses and keeps suggesting Brazilian ones (and I have my phone set to US English, including Siri).
Also, no public transit info in most places I visited.
As an Apple Maps hating, Waze fanboy with neutral opinion about Google Maps, I find this post fairly accurate.
But, since iOS 11, I'm using Apple maps exclusively for navigation. Its UX is great, and the ETA is almost always accurate (unless there's some accident/road block not known to app).
I use Waze whenever I'm on the highways, especially on those that I dont drive often.
Google Maps is my go to option for places of interest, which is years ahead of Waze and Apple Maps. But some malls I visit have indoor maps on Apple Maps, and these are certainly better than google maps.
edit: My app usage is mostly in the NE US, especially in NJ-NYC area.
I'm the same, I'm quite new to iOS but I love the Maps app when it goes into a more birdseye view when you're coming up to a roudabout or other tricky areas, it's much easy to see which exit to take.
Sometimes I have to use Google Maps when iOS maps can't find what I'm looking for which is the only real let down.
Just personally I'll never use Apple Maps because their customer/developer support suck.
I've filed numerous tickets on one intersection that's been closed for 2.5 years in Downtown San Francisco of all places. Yet Apple Maps still routes uber drivers through there forcing them to do a 10 minute roundabout. When they pick me up I again have to direct them not to follow Apple Maps. I don't know why they persistently decide to not fix it, but that headache has made me assume Apple Maps doesn't really give a crap about customer satisfaction therefore their other features will probably suck too.
Reminds me reading on some guy phoning his lyft drivers whether they're using Waze for a similar reason some days ago, may have even been on HN.
On the other hand, I in the starting days of apple maps noticed them having a baker in my neighbourhood twice. They got back via email I think a week or two after me reporting it, and a couple days later it was fixed, so maybe you're just not lucky here..
Like most support systems for mapping, I have to imagine that it only triggers an actual ticket if multiple people report an issue at that same spot. Make sure you have your friends report it too and any Uber/Lyft drivers that get tied up there. That'll get it fixed in a jiffy.
I’ve made literally dozens of changes around Australia. Changes to POIs, street names, off ramps etc. Every single one has been actioned although usually takes a few weeks.
The problem with Apple Maps is they source the data from third parties so it’s up to them whether changes are accepted or not.
This article is taking the estimated arrival time into account, but not sudden external influences like accidents or traffic jams. I’ve used Waze in São Paulo, throughout the UK and Germany, and find it to be very creative concerning route finding. In the same situations, Google Or Apple maps seem much more conservative and consider “riding out” the traffic jams instead of taking nifty shortcuts. Especially in São Paulo, that was a HUGE time saver.
Another feature I prefer with Waze is integrated speed limit display. I never had to endure any ads though in Waze, that’d be a reason to quit and switch.
Was it really a time saver or did it just feel like a time saver? In the US I found Waze unrealistically optimistic that back-roads and alternative routes would save time -- my ETA started great, but slowly worsened until I was better off riding out the traffic.
I don’t drive so I can’t say I’ve ever used Waze, but I did recently switch from Google Maps to Apple Maps. I’d say that the author’s findings about both apps largely mirrors my own experience using them for public transport and walking directions.
Apple Maps generally always gives fairly conservative but accurate estimations of walking times, while Google Maps is all over the place. I’ve missed perhaps half a dozen buses while using Google Maps because of unrealistic walking times, but none while using Apple Maps. On the other hand, Google Maps has also sometimes overestimated walking times by ~20 minutes.
As for using public transport, Apple Maps is just more useful. It’s easier to find stations, easier to find out about disruptions and gives better walking directions around stations. Google Maps regularly gets trains and buses mixed up, makes it a pain to find information about disruptions, and in a city with multiple modes of transport (i.e. Melbourne AU with trains, trams and buses) a cluster of train/bus/tram stations on a map just gets rendered as an unreadable mess.
Google’s UI is also a bit of a pain. Several friends (both iOS and Android users) have complained that Google Maps is too fiddly to use on the go. I’d agree, and add that Apple Maps is a lot easier to use on a crowded train or while walking.
That said, for a long time I persistently had problems with Apple Maps being slower to load actual maps. I suppose I’d better start collecting my own usage data and write a blog post.
2 years ago I went on the (rocky & dirt) forest "roads" in the North Georgia mountains with my Jeep, and at the top of the dirt trail, I encountered a couple of hikers who drove their rental Nissan Versa into a mud pit. They had blindly followed their GPS and were completely stuck. I was too busy helping them get out of their predicament to notice exactly what they were using but I know that it wasn't Apple Maps (they were on Android).
Actually, Apple Maps will refuse to route me though any of the forest service "roads" and shys away from unpaved ones (though I've found exceptions). Only if I set a intermediate destination in the middle of the forest will it route me through those trails.
Back in city/suburbs, I've found the same as the author, in that Apple pads the time with a few extra minutes. I appreciate that realism because it only takes a few poorly timed traffic lights to add a few minutes to the estimate.
I suspect there is some logic around building padding around lights at large intersections because I noticed that when the destination is right after a major intersection, that padding remains until I clear that intersection—and that doesn't seem to happen when the destination is much further after a big intersection.
Isn't 120 rides too few to come to a conclusion? Specially with different routes, different conditions?
It would have been better to see if they all told to take the same route and then compare the predicted time as well as actual time. It's possible that it started raining in one of the case or there was an accident, which added a lot of time to the predicted time.
FWIW, I use Google Maps and Waze alternately. I always arrive a minute or two earlier than the GMaps predictions. It's easy to note this from the summary page after you complete the ride. Waze, sadly, doesn't provide any summary. No idea about Apple Maps as I use Android.
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.
My main problem with this study is that it's only in the Bay Area. I live in Ohio, and I've actually found Waze to be MUCH better. I tend to be at my destination before my estimated time, unlike what this article describes. This may have to do with several factors though: Less traffic density, less people using Waze, etc.
Waze pointing out police and road hazards has saved my bacon a lot. Sometimes it routes me wrong, but sometimes I distrusted it's recommendation to go through a side street, only to slam into a huge traffic jam that it was routing me around.
Nowadays, I use Waze but look at the route, and if it is overcomplicated, I look to see if it did it for obvious reasons (traffic jams).
Apple Maps is pretty awful for me, it doesn't give enough detail on turns (like what lane to be in), and its POI database sucks. Too many times I've typed in the name of a place that's local and its first suggestions are in another state hundreds of miles away. In non-US/European countries, like if you're driving in South America, don't even bother.
I've been listening to a CB radio and comparing it to waze during my commute, and CB radio is still arguably superior in avoiding speed traps and wrecks. Truckers use waze a lot but still always default to radio for real-time traffic information.
It's also ridiculously annoying when a trucker gets into an on-air fight with another trucker, or when one catcalls an attractive woman, or when a megawatt CB broadcaster from Mexico or the Deep South USA comes in full scale spouting literal gibberish.
I hate waze, but I hate even more to get speed fines. So, Radar warnings is the only reason it made me switch from my old garmin gps.
Google maps, on the opposite, fills all the boxes that I like, but not the one that I need.
[+] [-] chipotle_coyote|8 years ago|reply
Also, whoever thought it was a great idea to permanently stick a button in the user interface that brings up an ad for Waze Carpool needs to be soundly whipped. I mean, I don't have any studies to back this up, but I'm pretty sure that when someone is in their car already, using Waze, they don't need to schedule a carpool pickup. Because they're in their car. Driving.
[+] [-] erichurkman|8 years ago|reply
There's also a familiarity level of safety taking known routes. Sure, cutting down some residential side streets might save 60 seconds, but no kid is going to run out into the road chasing a soccer ball on 101.
[+] [-] foobarian|8 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] mistahchris|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bryanlarsen|8 years ago|reply
I believe you were the only one to mention this factor. It's kind of scary how few people prioritize lowering the chances of killing a kid.
[+] [-] BatFastard|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duxup|8 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] tedivm|8 years ago|reply
* 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.
[+] [-] radicaldreamer|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xster|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] carlmr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] muddi900|8 years ago|reply
And I do not Silicon Valley to direct traffic in my city.
[+] [-] tzs|8 years ago|reply
I was using Waze when leaving Madras, Oregon, after the eclipse heading to the Puget Sound area of Washington. It suggested a route that would bypass a couple miles of slow traffic, but the road it sent me down was a dirt road with a periodic undulation in it that caused massive vibration, and my car and the two or three others that were on it were throwing up so much dust it was very hard to see. I turned around and went back to the main route and put up with the slow traffic.
A friend of mine was also leaving Madras, but heading to California. He was using Google. It also was giving some poor route advice. Here's what he told me when we compared notes of our trips home:
> Google kept sending us onto logging roads: we bailed on the first when we were told to turn onto a non-existent road; we bailed on the second when a van came out and told us that ~5 cars were stuck axle-deep in mud; we bailed on the third when we got to a sign informing us that we were about to enter an off-road-vehicle trail.
I'd also like to see a review of how the various cell phone companies handled it. Both me and my friend are on T-Mobile, and something like 90% of the text messages we tried to exchange were either lost or delivered hours late. I think we managed one or two short voice calls. Most voice calls either did not connect, or on occasion would connect but only one of us could hear the other.
[+] [-] epberry|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wyager|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ambroos|8 years ago|reply
In addition to that, Google Maps has recently added a "regular routes" feature in the personal content settings. Their description: "When providing directions, suggest routes you regularly take based on your Location History.". I have noticed that after overriding the route Maps gives you and doing something else, if it's close enough in theoretical time, Maps will pick your 'preferred' route by default after a while. The original Maps route will still be shown while driving (as one of the grey alternative routes).
[+] [-] dawnerd|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jinonoel|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] forgotmypw|8 years ago|reply
1) As tends to happen with our favorite apps, they started fucking with the UI. I don't remember exactly what it was at this point, but every release after Google's acquisition included some changes that made it less convenient and more aggravating.
2) I gave up having tower service and went wifi-only. Google Maps is very good at storing the map offline and recalculating without an Internet connection. Waze needs an internet connection every time a fly passes between you and the GPS satellite.
I still miss the police warnings, but I also changed my driving habits to where I don't need them anymore.
[+] [-] ctdonath|8 years ago|reply
Hey, that's an idea: obey the law.
[ETA: funny that this is being downvotes.]
[+] [-] BrandoElFollito|8 years ago|reply
I am always wondering how good these apps are in such circumstances, when on a specific day everyone goes to the same place. They do not synchronize, which would help people to drive different roads from the start.
Last Saturday I drove from Paris to the Alps, together with everybody else. GM was suggesting the straight road (A6) and I decided to take a completely different one (A5 via Annecy), supposedly 1h30 longer (over an official 7h30 trip). I arrived me of les at the same time as the others, with less stress (not one traffic jam).
I would love to have an app which talks with the others to suggest an alternate road "because the others are PLANNING to take the obvious one"
[+] [-] JumpCrisscross|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wmeredith|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freshyill|8 years ago|reply
What I like about Apple Maps: The actual on-screen navigation experience. I find it’s the clearest about which lane I need to be in.
Waze is terrible about weirdly-shaped intersections and ramps, both in the maps themselves and the instructions about where I need to be to turn/exit.
If you think all the alleys and left turns are annoying, that’s nothing. On I-270, outside DC, it often has me bouncing back and forth between the local and express lanes, for no reason. Probably because some other user nearby in each lane is going a slightly different speed.
[+] [-] ctrlrsf|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exhilaration|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johncalvinyoung|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rcarmo|8 years ago|reply
It annoys me to no end that it is incapable of coping with local street addresses and keeps suggesting Brazilian ones (and I have my phone set to US English, including Siri).
Also, no public transit info in most places I visited.
[+] [-] calvinbhai|8 years ago|reply
But, since iOS 11, I'm using Apple maps exclusively for navigation. Its UX is great, and the ETA is almost always accurate (unless there's some accident/road block not known to app).
I use Waze whenever I'm on the highways, especially on those that I dont drive often.
Google Maps is my go to option for places of interest, which is years ahead of Waze and Apple Maps. But some malls I visit have indoor maps on Apple Maps, and these are certainly better than google maps.
edit: My app usage is mostly in the NE US, especially in NJ-NYC area.
[+] [-] Accacin|8 years ago|reply
Sometimes I have to use Google Maps when iOS maps can't find what I'm looking for which is the only real let down.
[+] [-] capkutay|8 years ago|reply
I've filed numerous tickets on one intersection that's been closed for 2.5 years in Downtown San Francisco of all places. Yet Apple Maps still routes uber drivers through there forcing them to do a 10 minute roundabout. When they pick me up I again have to direct them not to follow Apple Maps. I don't know why they persistently decide to not fix it, but that headache has made me assume Apple Maps doesn't really give a crap about customer satisfaction therefore their other features will probably suck too.
[+] [-] richlv|8 years ago|reply
Consider contributing to - and suggesting to others - OpenStreetMap :)
[+] [-] linopolus|8 years ago|reply
On the other hand, I in the starting days of apple maps noticed them having a baker in my neighbourhood twice. They got back via email I think a week or two after me reporting it, and a couple days later it was fixed, so maybe you're just not lucky here..
[+] [-] dpkonofa|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] threeseed|8 years ago|reply
I’ve made literally dozens of changes around Australia. Changes to POIs, street names, off ramps etc. Every single one has been actioned although usually takes a few weeks.
The problem with Apple Maps is they source the data from third parties so it’s up to them whether changes are accepted or not.
[+] [-] more111|8 years ago|reply
Another feature I prefer with Waze is integrated speed limit display. I never had to endure any ads though in Waze, that’d be a reason to quit and switch.
[+] [-] JoshuaEddy|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thomasfoster96|8 years ago|reply
Apple Maps generally always gives fairly conservative but accurate estimations of walking times, while Google Maps is all over the place. I’ve missed perhaps half a dozen buses while using Google Maps because of unrealistic walking times, but none while using Apple Maps. On the other hand, Google Maps has also sometimes overestimated walking times by ~20 minutes.
As for using public transport, Apple Maps is just more useful. It’s easier to find stations, easier to find out about disruptions and gives better walking directions around stations. Google Maps regularly gets trains and buses mixed up, makes it a pain to find information about disruptions, and in a city with multiple modes of transport (i.e. Melbourne AU with trains, trams and buses) a cluster of train/bus/tram stations on a map just gets rendered as an unreadable mess.
Google’s UI is also a bit of a pain. Several friends (both iOS and Android users) have complained that Google Maps is too fiddly to use on the go. I’d agree, and add that Apple Maps is a lot easier to use on a crowded train or while walking.
That said, for a long time I persistently had problems with Apple Maps being slower to load actual maps. I suppose I’d better start collecting my own usage data and write a blog post.
[+] [-] athenot|8 years ago|reply
Actually, Apple Maps will refuse to route me though any of the forest service "roads" and shys away from unpaved ones (though I've found exceptions). Only if I set a intermediate destination in the middle of the forest will it route me through those trails.
Back in city/suburbs, I've found the same as the author, in that Apple pads the time with a few extra minutes. I appreciate that realism because it only takes a few poorly timed traffic lights to add a few minutes to the estimate.
I suspect there is some logic around building padding around lights at large intersections because I noticed that when the destination is right after a major intersection, that padding remains until I clear that intersection—and that doesn't seem to happen when the destination is much further after a big intersection.
[+] [-] what_ever|8 years ago|reply
It would have been better to see if they all told to take the same route and then compare the predicted time as well as actual time. It's possible that it started raining in one of the case or there was an accident, which added a lot of time to the predicted time.
FWIW, I use Google Maps and Waze alternately. I always arrive a minute or two earlier than the GMaps predictions. It's easy to note this from the summary page after you complete the ride. Waze, sadly, doesn't provide any summary. No idea about Apple Maps as I use Android.
Disc: Googler.
[+] [-] myrandomcomment|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jannyfer|8 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] bdcravens|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pat2man|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hmhrex|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cromwellian|8 years ago|reply
Nowadays, I use Waze but look at the route, and if it is overcomplicated, I look to see if it did it for obvious reasons (traffic jams).
Apple Maps is pretty awful for me, it doesn't give enough detail on turns (like what lane to be in), and its POI database sucks. Too many times I've typed in the name of a place that's local and its first suggestions are in another state hundreds of miles away. In non-US/European countries, like if you're driving in South America, don't even bother.
[+] [-] sp00ls|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kawfey|8 years ago|reply
It's also ridiculously annoying when a trucker gets into an on-air fight with another trucker, or when one catcalls an attractive woman, or when a megawatt CB broadcaster from Mexico or the Deep South USA comes in full scale spouting literal gibberish.
[+] [-] manuu80|8 years ago|reply