3There is a huge debate between Google Maps and Waze users. Google Maps users prefer the cleaner looking interface with the enormous amount of detail you can get on their display without making their smartphone look like a mess of squiggly lines. You even get Google to tell you which lanes you need to take. Waze also adopted the lane guidance system by Google toward the end of last year, which was a hugely welcome addition to the app. Waze was one of the first few apps in the industry to allow for real-time traffic tracking and rely on user inputs to analyse traffic situations. But in some sense, its UI feels a little more clunky than the plain and clean looking Google Maps.
Since Waze added the lane guidance feature that was vital to Google Maps’ popularity though, it seems that Waze is leaping ahead. They had features that helped users really plan their journey out, complete with an estimate cost of the journey. Waze, at one point, was the only reliable app you could use to estimate your toll payment costs. Google Maps is now taking a backseat. Ironically, Waze is owned by Google as well.
Google Maps might be able to regain some foothold though with an upcoming feature to mimic Waze’s toll cost feature. In that sense, now you can use your Google Maps to really plan out your journey, costs included.
Since Waze’s acquisition, the Google Maps and Waze apps have been getting numerous updates that adds functionality in one way or another. While Waze’s app development has been largely driven by its users, Google Maps takes a slightly different approach. Still, some functions from Google Maps will make way into Waze and vice versa.
The feature update that is touted to come in the coming weeks is supposed to show estimated toll prices alongside the drive route. Before this, Google Maps recognises the existence of tolls on its route but does not display its estimated cost. Before you pick a route on Google Maps too, the app will tell you that you are going to be taking a route with tolls on the way. The update is expected to finally tell you how much you might need to spend for tolls on the route of your choosing. There are no clear indications on how Google Maps plan to collect toll price data for this function. The best guess is that Google would be using collected user data for the function to work. Or Google could just completely rip the feature off from Waze and dunk it into their app.
Whatever it is, it can only mean good things for users at both ends. Being able to plan your routes accordingly and accurately is not just important to cut down your travel times, but also important in making your journey a less painful one with a certain amount of predictability. In that case, we are looking forward to Google Maps finally having some new features. Google Maps and Waze are both available for free on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
