11-22-2017, 05:10 PM
Waze used to be quicker than Apple Maps for updating the route if there was traffic, or if you took a wrong turn. I haven't driven with an iOS user in six months, so it might have gotten better.
That said, Waze will occasionally send me down a different route just to see how long it takes. If I know it is doing this, I can just drive my favorite faster route and it will accept it and change the route and cut the estimated drive time.
One big limitation with Waze is it's terrible at predicting traffic ahead of time. It can see 10,000 people starting their drives at the same time, day after day and getting stuck in traffic, but it won't warn about bad traffic until it sees those users going 5 mph on the freeway. Using Google Maps or Waze online can give historic traffic patterns and estimate "worst case" average travel times, but they are not going to give you actual travel times for a big rig blocking the interstate at 5 PM on Wednesday before Thanksgiving until it sees the speeds people are traveling.
Waze also has issues when the phone switches back and forth between GPS and cellular location when the cell service drops off. Two days ago it briefly said I was doing 83 mph in a 55 zone when my speed was a constant 56 mph, because it had taken a little too long to switch between services. Edit: That can be an advantage of in-car GPS systems, they don't switch back and forth (at least I haven't seen it yet). There can be times when a car GPS can't see enough satellites, like in a garage, but a phone will still give a location.
That said, Waze will occasionally send me down a different route just to see how long it takes. If I know it is doing this, I can just drive my favorite faster route and it will accept it and change the route and cut the estimated drive time.
One big limitation with Waze is it's terrible at predicting traffic ahead of time. It can see 10,000 people starting their drives at the same time, day after day and getting stuck in traffic, but it won't warn about bad traffic until it sees those users going 5 mph on the freeway. Using Google Maps or Waze online can give historic traffic patterns and estimate "worst case" average travel times, but they are not going to give you actual travel times for a big rig blocking the interstate at 5 PM on Wednesday before Thanksgiving until it sees the speeds people are traveling.
Waze also has issues when the phone switches back and forth between GPS and cellular location when the cell service drops off. Two days ago it briefly said I was doing 83 mph in a 55 zone when my speed was a constant 56 mph, because it had taken a little too long to switch between services. Edit: That can be an advantage of in-car GPS systems, they don't switch back and forth (at least I haven't seen it yet). There can be times when a car GPS can't see enough satellites, like in a garage, but a phone will still give a location.